Astronomy: Gravitational Lensing

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Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

Gravitational Lensing A gravitational lens is matter, such as a cluster of galaxies or a p oint particle, that bends light from a distant source as it travels toward an observer. The amount of gravitational lensing is described by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. If light is treated as corpuscles travelling at the speed of light, Newtonian physics also predicts the bending of light, but only half of that predicted by general relativity.

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Why Gravitational Lensing matters: Cosmology addresses the deepest questions we can ask: where did the universe come from , what is it made of, and what will happen to it in the future? Orest Khvolson (1924) and Frantisek Link (1936) are generally credited with being the first to discuss the effect in print, but it is more commonly associated with Einstein, who made unpublished calculations on it in 1912 and published an article on the subject in 1936. In 1937, Fritz Zwicky posited that galaxy clusters could act as gravitational lenses, a claim confirmed in 1979 by observation of the Twin QSO SBS 0957+561.

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Deep dive: Gravitational Lensing In 1937, Fritz Zwick y posited that galaxy clusters could act as gravitational lenses, a claim confirmed in 1979 by observation of the Twin QSO SBS 0957+561. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lens (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)