Hubble Telescope Discovers a Light-Bending 'Einstein Ring' in Space

[bernorange 8362]

Quote

The perfect circle surrounding a galaxy cluster in a new Hubble Space Telescope image is a visual indicator of the huge masses that are bending time and space in that region.

The galaxy cluster, called SDSS J0146-0929, features hundreds of individual galaxies all bound together by gravity. There's so much mass in this region that the cluster is distorting light from objects behind it. This phenomenon is called an Einstein ring.

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More:  https://www.space.com/40255-hubble-telescope-einstein-ring-photo.html

It looks like a lens flare on a galactic scale.  Someone alert J.J. Abrams.

[miguelito 11266]

Yo momma so fat, she bending time and space in the region of SDSS J0146-0929, distorting light from objects behind it.  This is also known as an Einstein ring.

[Hellraiser97 181]

So for the science tards like myself here, would that amount of gravity in an area of space make life, at least as we know it, impossible?  IE, is there basically a region of space with hundreds of galaxies, each with billions of stars, where not a single planet likely supports life?

[TKthunder2 4992]

6 hours ago, Hellraiser97 said:

So for the science tards like myself here, would that amount of gravity in an area of space make life, at least as we know it, impossible?  IE, is there basically a region of space with hundreds of galaxies, each with billions of stars, where not a single planet likely supports life?

Life finds a way.

[bernorange 8362]

20 hours ago, Hellraiser97 said:

So for the science tards like myself here, would that amount of gravity in an area of space make life, at least as we know it, impossible?  IE, is there basically a region of space with hundreds of galaxies, each with billions of stars, where not a single planet likely supports life?

Yeah, I had wondered about that too.  So even though Newton's equations have been superceded by Einstein's, they are still used by and large because they yield good enough results in most cases.  Newton's gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, which, as I understand it, means that the force is stronger at close distances and weaker as distance increases.  If the force was strong enough to bend light at astronomical distances, how in the heck are the celestial bodies inside the lens area not compacted into one big mass?  I guess it's just a testament to how little mass the light has.

Edited April 18, 2018 by bernorange

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

This is done via Gravitational Lensing, which was first used in 1919 by Sir Arthur Eddington during an eclipse of the Sun to confirm Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. How this works is by a galaxy with an incredible amount of mass being directly between the observer and the distant light source. The light from the distant source travels in all directions, when that light reaches the mass acting as the lens the light follows the bend in space time and proceeds to the observer.

Gravitational Lensing is also how Astrophysicists are able to calculate the amount of Dark Matter in the universe. Since Dark Matter doesn't emit or interact with light in anyway that we are presently aware of, we would otherwise have no way of knowing it was there. However, Dark Matter does have mass, thus it bends the fabric of spacetime and creates the effect of gravitational lensing which can be used to calculate its quantity.

You can observe Gravitational Lensing with just your hand. To do this, stretch your arm out and give a thumbs up, then look at a distant object where a line should be straight (such as a corner across the room or something) and notice at the edge the bend around the edge of your thumb. This is because the light being reflected from the distant edge into your eye is bending around your thumb. Anything with mass has gravity, even if its not very much. This is a basic explanation without getting into the math, which I know many of your find abhorrent.

[Doc Holliday 199]

On ‎4‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 6:12 PM, TKthunder2 said:

Life finds a way.

I bet tardigrades can live there

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

20 hours ago, Doc Holliday said:

I bet tardigrades can live there

idk about live... but they will certainly at least not die there.

[El Diablo 4232]

On 4/21/2018 at 3:23 AM, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

This is done via Gravitational Lensing, which was first used in 1919 by Sir Arthur Eddington during an eclipse of the Sun to confirm Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. How this works is by a galaxy with an incredible amount of mass being directly between the observer and the distant light source. The light from the distant source travels in all directions, when that light reaches the mass acting as the lens the light follows the bend in space time and proceeds to the observer.

Gravitational Lensing is also how Astrophysicists are able to calculate the amount of Dark Matter in the universe. Since Dark Matter doesn't emit or interact with light in anyway that we are presently aware of, we would otherwise have no way of knowing it was there. However, Dark Matter does have mass, thus it bends the fabric of spacetime and creates the effect of gravitational lensing which can be used to calculate its quantity.

You can observe Gravitational Lensing with just your hand. To do this, stretch your arm out and give a thumbs up, then look at a distant object where a line should be straight (such as a corner across the room or something) and notice at the edge the bend around the edge of your thumb. This is because the light being reflected from the distant edge into your eye is bending around your thumb. Anything with mass has gravity, even if its not very much. This is a basic explanation without getting into the math, which I know many of your find abhorrent.

Interesting. Without your explanation I might have thought that the observed phenomenon was related to binocular vision and how the eyes try to "solve" what they see. I guess even with just one eye the same can be observed to be happening? 

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

15 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Interesting. Without your explanation I might have thought that the observed phenomenon was related to binocular vision and how the eyes try to "solve" what they see. I guess even with just one eye the same can be observed to be happening? 

Yes. The same phenomenon would be observed because this is a matter of spacetime being warped, not an instance of our perception of the light. This is because " Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve" as expressed by John Archibald Wheeler's interpretation of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Even if we were unable to use optics to detect this and were forced to use another type of experiment to derive what was happening, the galaxies behind intermediary lens would still emit everything they already do across the electro-magnetic spectrum and it still be be bent around any such bodies. What I mean by emissions across the electro-magnetic spectrum is everything from radio waves up to Gamma rays, this includes the visible spectrum of light that we see optically and is broken down into the various colors.

Bonus note - there are black bars in the light that become visible with a sensitive and large enough prism. These black bars correspond to the elemental makeup of our local Star, Sol. This technique is used to understand the composition of distant stars as well, however the corresponding light and bars are always shifted up to the blue if the star/galaxy/light source is advancing toward us or red if receding away from us. Astrophysicists use these markers to identify characteristics in stars that would otherwise be impossible to know since we can't travel to them.

[El Diablo 4232]

23 minutes ago, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

Yes. The same phenomenon would be observed because this is a matter of spacetime being warped, not an instance of our perception of the light. This is because " Spacetime tells matter how to move; matter tells spacetime how to curve" as expressed by John Archibald Wheeler's interpretation of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Even if we were unable to use optics to detect this and were forced to use another type of experiment to derive what was happening, the galaxies behind intermediary lens would still emit everything they already do across the electro-magnetic spectrum and it still be be bent around any such bodies. What I mean by emissions across the electro-magnetic spectrum is everything from radio waves up to Gamma rays, this includes the visible spectrum of light that we see optically and is broken down into the various colors.

Bonus note - there are black bars in the light that become visible with a sensitive and large enough prism. These black bars correspond to the elemental makeup of our local Star, Sol. This technique is used to understand the composition of distant stars as well, however the corresponding light and bars are always shifted up to the blue if the star/galaxy/light source is advancing toward us or red if receding away from us. Astrophysicists use these markers to identify characteristics in stars that would otherwise be impossible to know since we can't travel to them.

Cool. I only asked because I only have one functioning eye and almost every single optical illusion is dependent on binocular vision and I'm never able to perceive the illusion that everyone else sees. Still hard to believe that the thumb has enough mass to bend light in a way that is perceptible to the human eye.

[El Diablo 4232]

You made me curious about the thumb bending light so I did the googlefu and found this guys video. Even my one eyed ass could see the effect so that's pretty cool, I almost never can see this sort of thing. 

 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

On 4/21/2018 at 3:23 AM, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

This is done via Gravitational Lensing, which was first used in 1919 by Sir Arthur Eddington during an eclipse of the Sun to confirm Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. How this works is by a galaxy with an incredible amount of mass being directly between the observer and the distant light source. The light from the distant source travels in all directions, when that light reaches the mass acting as the lens the light follows the bend in space time and proceeds to the observer.

Gravitational Lensing is also how Astrophysicists are able to calculate the amount of Dark Matter in the universe. Since Dark Matter doesn't emit or interact with light in anyway that we are presently aware of, we would otherwise have no way of knowing it was there. However, Dark Matter does have mass, thus it bends the fabric of spacetime and creates the effect of gravitational lensing which can be used to calculate its quantity.

You can observe Gravitational Lensing with just your hand. To do this, stretch your arm out and give a thumbs up, then look at a distant object where a line should be straight (such as a corner across the room or something) and notice at the edge the bend around the edge of your thumb. This is because the light being reflected from the distant edge into your eye is bending around your thumb. Anything with mass has gravity, even if its not very much. This is a basic explanation without getting into the math, which I know many of your find abhorrent.

I've always noticed this effect, but never that it was called gravitational lensing. Good stuff.

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

18 hours ago, El Diablo said:

Cool. I only asked because I only have one functioning eye and almost every single optical illusion is dependent on binocular vision and I'm never able to perceive the illusion that everyone else sees. Still hard to believe that the thumb has enough mass to bend light in a way that is perceptible to the human eye.

That really sucks. I'm glad I was able to bring this one to your attention and help with some science along the way. Despite any visual imparity, you still see well enough to know the correct side of the red river.

[Guest]

On 4/21/2018 at 3:23 AM, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

You can observe Gravitational Lensing with just your hand. To do this, stretch your arm out and give a thumbs up, then look at a distant object where a line should be straight (such as a corner across the room or something) and notice at the edge the bend around the edge of your thumb. This is because the light being reflected from the distant edge into your eye is bending around your thumb. Anything with mass has gravity, even if its not very much. This is a basic explanation without getting into the math, which I know many of your find abhorrent.

That is an interesting effect; but it is not caused by gravitational lensing.  Your fingers do not have enough mass to bend light by any noticeable amount.  Even earth’s gravity field doesn’t bend light by any noticeable amount. 

[HOOK'EMHOOAH 1610]

5 hours ago, Aphelion said:

That is an interesting effect; but it is not caused by gravitational lensing.  Your fingers do not have enough mass to bend light by any noticeable amount.  Even earth’s gravity field doesn’t bend light by any noticeable amount. 

Im not saying a person's finger is causing gravitational lensing to occur. All I'm saying is that its light bending around the finger.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

Im not saying a person's finger is causing gravitational lensing to occur. All I'm saying is that its light bending around the finger.

The light is not bending around your finger.  The effect is caused by a lens focusing issue.  If the object you are looking at or filming is in focus, you will see that the light doesn’t bend at all around your finger. In other words, the effect occurs at the eye/camera and not at the finger.  The light passes straight by the finger without bending. 

[El Diablo 4232]

On ‎4‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 8:36 AM, Aphelion said:

The light is not bending around your finger.  The effect is caused by a lens focusing issue.  If the object you are looking at or filming is in focus, you will see that the light doesn’t bend at all around your finger. In other words, the effect occurs at the eye/camera and not at the finger.  The light passes straight by the finger without bending. 

If you keep this up you're going to spoil the fun I was having.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

On 4/29/2018 at 6:58 AM, HOOK'EMHOOAH said:

That really sucks. I'm glad I was able to bring this one to your attention and help with some science along the way. Despite any visual imparity, you still see well enough to know the correct side of the red river.

Sense of smell is a dead give away on the correct side of the Red River.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

All them smarty pants at NASA ain’t going to look so smart when they realize this is just a smashed bug on Hubble’s lense.

[RayDog 682]

Eddington's experiment by the way has been shown to be flawed. He was using too small a telescope to make the measurement. What he really measured was the telescope's aberration.

Light bending has seen been measured numerous times but I find it interesting that the original experiment to demonstrate gravitational light bending was invalid.

I will resist commenting about other invalid points in this thread.