A serendipitous gravitational lens
Monday, November 21, 2011 - 08:31
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- The path traveled by a light beam will bend in the presence of matter. This remarkable prediction, reached by Einstein in his theory of general relativity, was confirmed by observations of the solar eclipse of 1919. One consequence of this phenomenon is that light from a distant galaxy passing by an intervening galaxy en route to earth will be distorted, much in the way that light passing through a glass lens will be bent, sometimes deforming the appearance of objects seen through it.
