light games
Dr. Noah Brosh
Albert Einstein discovered to us at the beginning of the 20th century that light rays change their path under the influence of gravity. The hypothesis of the Jewish genius was confirmed in 1919 when star figures that appeared near the sun during a solar eclipse "moved" from their position, relative to the other stars.
In recent decades, objects have been discovered in space that have undergone a similar process of light being deflected from them by black holes or huge mass distributions.
Recently, a quasar (a kind of star, or a huge, massive and high-energy black hole) was discovered, and creates four different figures in the eyes of the observer. This is because the image of the quasar passes through a cluster of other galaxies on its way to us. This process is called "gravitational filtration" (from the lens language). To this day, about 100 cases of "gravitational dusting" of quasars, at a huge distance from us, are known. Their images are reproduced thanks to huge concentrations of matter between us and them.
In the new discovery, a record was set: the angular separation between the figures is about a quarter of an angle minute, smaller than can be discerned with the naked eye, but twice as large as the next one in the "Records of Dimension" panel.
The latest discovery was born out of the systematic research to map the sky using a unique telescope found in the United States. The relatively large distance between the figures revealed a large mass relative to the body of the lens. The large separation (resolution) required much more material than was seen in the photographs of the galaxies - which is a sign that the lens cluster contains a relatively large amount of "dark mass". This is the same mysterious component in the universe, which recently turned out to be greater than the luminous matter - the stars and galaxies.
