Lensed galaxies
Friday, November 12, 2010 - 14:00
in Astronomy & Space
In 1915, Einstein amazed the world by predicting that the path of light could be bent by mass. As a consequence, light from a distant galaxy passing by an intervening galaxy en route to earth will be distorted. Just as a glass lens can deform the appearance of objects seen through it, so can the mass of the intervening galaxy can act as a "gravitational lens," distorting the image we would otherwise see into a more complex shape.