Einstein Ring

Einstein Ring Latest News

Recently, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope has discovered a rare ring of light, known as an Einstein ring, around a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away from Earth.

About Einstein Ring

• It is a ring of light around a form of dark matter, galaxy or cluster of galaxies.
• It is essentially an example of gravitational lensing.
• Einstein rings are not visible to the naked eye, and can be observed only through space telescopes such as Euclid.
• In the case of the recently discovered Einstein ring, NGC 6505 was the gravitational lens.
• The nearer galaxy distorted and amplified the light coming from a distant unnamed galaxy, located 4.42 billion light-years away.
• These are named after mathematician and physicist Albert Einstein, whose general theory of relativity predicted that light could bend and brighten around objects across the cosmos.
• The first Einstein ring was discovered in 1987, and since then, several more have been discovered. 

Significance of Einstein Ring

• These rings help scientists investigate dark matter, which has never been detected but is believed to make up 85% of the total matter in the universe.
• They enable scientists to learn about distant galaxies, which otherwise might not be visible.
• They can also provide information about the expansion of the universe as the space between the Earth and other galaxies — both in the foreground and the background 

What is Gravitational Lensing?

• It is a phenomenon which occurs when a massive celestial body — such as a galaxy or cluster of galaxies — creates a gravitational field which distorts and amplifies the light from distant galaxies that are behind it but in the same line of sight.
• The body causing the light to curve is called a gravitational lens.

Einstein Ring FAQs

Q1: What is the most complete Einstein ring?

Ans: GAL-CLUS-022058s is the largest and one of the most complete Einstein rings ever discovered in our Universe.

Q2: Who was the first person to discover an Einstein ring?

Ans: Jacqueline Nina Hewitt

Q3: What is the Einstein ring?

Ans: Einstein rings occur when light from a distant galaxy bends to form a glowing ring around another object in the foreground as that object is being observed

Source: IE