Why Gravity Is the Ultimate Space Telescope (forbes.com)

TheAlexKnapp writes: Ethan Siegel has written a nice overview of gravitational lensing, and how taking advantage of it has enabled to study parts of the universe that otherwise would've require the construction of massive telescopes. From his Forbes article: "Although the first gravitational lens wasn't discovered for some 40 years after it was first theorized, it's now the most prolific tool for weighing distant (foreground) galaxies, and discovering ultra-distant (background) galaxies. Although this isn't a technique we have precision control over — the Universe puts the lenses and the lensed objects where they are, and all we can do is watch — there's a spectacular amount of material that's out there."

Comments

Re:Research that gravity

[garyisabusyguy]

Eff Interstellar, it's Intergalactic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Used to be almost sci-fi ...

[gstoddart]

Wow, years ago, as a fresh-scrubbed nerd hanging out with other nerds, gravitational lensing was as yet unproven; it was based in science, but I don't think anybody had done it yet.

Of course, this was right around the time when we were on the cusp of seriously discussing exoplanets, yet to confirm a black hole, still working on hubble, and when radio astronomy was still coming into its own. Things which are almost commonplace were cutting edge stuff which hadn't happened yet.

To all the physicists, astrophysicists, amateurs, and other people who have made space discovery so damned awesome for the last few decades ... you're fucking awesome, and thanks for showing us just how cool the universe is.

Imagine

[romit_icarus]

Now just imagine a Beowulf cluster of these gravitational lenses...

40 yrs?

[stud9920]

Although the first gravitational lens wasn't discovered for some 40 years after it was first theorized

Eddington demonstrated gravitational lensing just a few years after the theory was published, in 1919. And he would possibly have been quicker if if weren't for WWI

FOCAL Mission

[Maritz]

Kinda surprised he'd write an entire article about what a great telescope gravity makes for and not mention the FOCAL proposal. If you had a probe sufficiently distant from the sun opposite Alpha Centari and there was a city full of little aliens there, you'd be able to see the cars move around in the streets. Not that this will ever happen or that humanity are capable of such projects - we clearly are not. But it's still a nice idea.