Gas Clouds As Giant Telescopes

allrong writes "Astronomers have found a way to harness clouds of gas in space to make a natural 'telescope' more powerful than any manmade telescope currently in operation. Read the press release or take a look at the images and description of the process."

Comments

So?

[zer0vector]

Gravitational lenses have been known about for a long time, and studied in detail. Theoretically any object has a gravitational field and can therefore curve light around it, acting as a lens. Most of the lenses studied up to now have been galaxies lensing distant quasars, but a sufficiently massive dust cloud would produce the same effect.

Reminds me of a joke

[tankdilla]

A man is walking down a street and the Devil appears. The Devil says I'll bet if you ask me to do 3 things I can do them. If so, your soul belongs to me, if not, i'll leave you alone. So the man says, ok, make a million dollars appear right here, and the devil happily obliged. Then the man said give me the ability to fly, and the man sprouted wings on the spot. Then the man farted and said, put that in a jar. The devil frowned and disappeared.