Gravitational Lensing
One of the Largest, Most Complete Einstein Rings Ever Seen. Astronomers Call it the “Molten Ring”
A very rare astronomical phenomenon has been in the headlines a lot recently, and for good reason. It will be…
If We Used the Sun as a Gravitational Lens Telescope, This is What a Planet at Proxima Centauri Would Look Like
A recent study shows how the Sun could be used as a gravitational lens to take direct images of nearby…
A new way to map out dark matter is 10 times more precise than the previous-best method
Astronomers have to be extra clever to map out the invisible dark matter in the universe. Recently, a team of…
Something other than just gravity is contributing to the shape of dark matter halos
Galactic dark matter is in a state of maximum entropy, which means it must interact with itself.
Gravitational-Wave Lensing is Possible, but it’s Going to be Incredibly Difficult to Detect
Because gravitational waves travel at the speed of light, they can be lensed just as light waves are. But observing…
Small Amounts of Dark Matter are Creating Much Stronger Gravitational Distortions than Anyone Expected to See
Dark matter is much more clumpy than we thought, which means some dark matter might be very cold.
This Distorted Circle is Actually a Galaxy That Looked Very Similar to the Milky Way, Shortly After the Big Bang
Using ALMA, a European team of astronomers was able to observe a galaxy as it looked 12 billion years ago…
Art Installation that Demonstrates How Dark Matter Bends Light with Gravity
A new art installation at the Science Gallery Dublin, called "Dark Distortions," helps viewers to see the influence dark matter…
Hundreds of New Gravitational Lenses Discovered to Help Study the Distant Universe
General relativity tells us that everything, even light, is affected by the mass of an object. When a beam of…
How Do You Weigh The Universe?
If we can find the weight of everything in the universe, we can better understand how the universe came to…