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Curved space star1/27/2024 Scientists have also managed to observe lensing examples where, because the light traveling around the lens takes different paths of different lengths, different images arrive at different times, as in the case of one particularly interesting supernova. In cases like Einstein's cross, the different images of the gravitationally lensed object appear simultaneously, but that isn't always the case. Because the two objects align so precisely, four images of the quasar appear around the galaxy because the intense gravity of the galaxy bends the light coming from the quasar. The quasar is seen as it was about 11 billion years ago the galaxy that it sits behind is about 10 times closer to Earth. The Einstein Cross, a quasar in the Pegasus constellation, according to the European Space Agency (opens in new tab) (ESA), and is an excellent example of gravitational lensing. Astronomers routinely use this method to study stars and galaxies behind massive objects. Light bends around a massive object, such as a black hole, causing it to act as a lens for the things that lie behind it. In the decades since Einstein published his theories, scientists have observed countless of phenomena matching the predictions of relativity. If you then attempt to roll a marble around the edge of the trampoline, the marble would spiral inward toward the body, pulled in much the same way that the gravity of a planet pulls at rocks in space. The object would press down into the fabric, causing it to dimple. Imagine setting a large object in the center of a trampoline. Related: What would happen if the speed of light was much lower?Īs he worked out the equations for his general theory of relativity, Einstein realized that massive objects caused a distortion in space-time. And events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another. Yet Newton's laws assume that gravity is an innate force of an object that can act over a distance.Īlbert Einstein, in his theory of special relativity, determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers, and he showed that the speed of light within a vacuum is the same no matter the speed at which an observer travels, according to Wired (opens in new tab).Īs a result, he found that space and time were interwoven into a single continuum known as space-time. But the more massive body barely feels the tug from you, while with your much smaller mass you find yourself firmly rooted thanks to that same force. Even as the center of the Earth is pulling you toward it (keeping you firmly lodged on the ground), your center of mass is pulling back at the Earth. The gravitational force tugging between two bodies depends on how massive each one is and how far apart the two lie, according to NASA (opens in new tab).
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