Double Einstein Ring Photographed by the Hubble Telescope

Posted by Alex in Science & Tech on January 14, 2008 at 5:12 pm


NASA/ESA Hubble Telescope photographed a phenomenon called "Einstein ring" where, predicted by Einstein a long time ago, gravity can "bend" light rays:

The phenomenon, called gravitational lensing, occurs when a massive galaxy in the foreground bends the light rays from a distant galaxy behind it, in much the same way as a magnifying glass would. When both galaxies are exactly lined up, the light forms a circle, called an “Einstein ring”, around the foreground galaxy. If another more distant galaxy lies precisely on the same sightline, a second, larger ring will appear.

And you get a Double Einstein Ring: Link (Photo: NASA/ESA, R. Gavazzi, T. Treu, SLACS team)


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COMMENT

4 comments to "Double Einstein Ring Photographed by the Hubble Telescope"

  1. Pete R
    January 15th, 2008 at 12:45 am

    Huh? The news here is not "ER photographed", but "Double einstein Ring photographed". Normal Einstein Rings are that that rare...

  2. Jon
    January 15th, 2008 at 4:29 am

    All I see is the goatse ring. Damn you internet.

  3. Alex
    January 15th, 2008 at 4:31 am

    You're right Pete R - it's fixed now. And Jon wins teh Internets!

  4. Quasi_Mojo
    January 15th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    It's a streetlight!


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