Rare ‘Einstein cross’ warps light from one of the universe’s brightest objects in this stunning image

Source: The post is based on the article “Rare ‘Einstein cross’ warps light from one of the universe’s brightest objects in this stunning image” published in LiveScience on 5^th August 2023.

What is the news?

Astronomers have discovered a stunning, rare example of an “Einstein cross” splitting and magnifying light from the far depths of the universe.

About the Discovery

A foreground elliptical galaxy located about 6 billion light-years away from Earth has warped and quadrisected a bright beam of light from a background galaxy approximately 11 billion light-years away.

The resulting pattern was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915.

Source: LiveScience

It is a rare arrangement that astronomers will study to get a better understanding of the universe.

The background light emitted by a quasar, which is a young galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center.

It consumes immense amounts of matter and blasts out enough radiation to shine more than a trillion times more brightly than the brightest stars.

What does Einstein’s theory of general relativity explain?

Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes the way massive objects warp the fabric of the universe, called space-time.

Einstein discovered that gravity is not an unseen force but rather a consequence of space-time curving and distorting in the presence of matter and energy.

Light, though usually traveling in a straight line, bends when passing through highly curved regions of space-time creating a halo-like effect.

In this case, Earth, the lensing galaxy and the quasar have aligned to perfectly duplicate the quasar’s light, arranging them along a so-called Einstein ring.

What is the significance of this discovery?

First, these rings magnify and reconstruct light, allowing astronomers to observe distant galaxies with enhanced details.

Second, the degree of light bending in Einstein rings provides a valuable tool for estimating the masses of galaxies and black holes on a cosmic scale.

Third, studying the distant light warping around these rings can help scientists to look at objects that would otherwise be too dark to be seen on their own, such as black holes or wandering exoplanets.