A century after the theory of general relativity was promulgated, Albert Einstein is much more present than ever. A space telescope, called Euclid, belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA) has captured an image that has left the scientific community speechless: the Einstein ring phenomenon, thus fulfilling all the predictions of the famous scientist.
If you haven’t understood what it is, don’t worry, we’ll explain it to you again: it is a phenomenon that occurs when the light of a galaxy that is very far away is bent by the gravity of another galaxy closer, so that astronomers can observe galactic objects that would be hidden to the naked eye.
It is a perfect case of gravitational lensing and generates an almost perfect ring of light, demonstrating how gravity can bend space-time!
What is an Einstein ring?
When we think of gravity, we usually imagine how it keeps planets in orbit or keeps us on the ground. But Einstein discovered that gravity can also affect light. If a massive galaxy is between us and another galaxy much further away, its gravity can bend the light from the background galaxy, forming a circle of light around the nearby galaxy. This is what is known as an Einstein Ring.
The Euclid telescope captured this ring around the galaxy NGC 6505, located 590 million light years from Earth. Although this galaxy has been known since 1884, no one had ever noticed this ring of light surrounding it before. The reason is that it takes a very precise telescope to detect these phenomena, and Euclid has the perfect technology for it!
According to Professor Stephen Serjeant from the Open University, “such a perfect Einstein ring is extremely rare.” So, this discovery allows scientists to observe a background galaxy through space-time warped by the foreground galaxy.
General relativity in action
Einstein already predicted things in his theory, such as gravity not being a force but the curvature of space-time caused by mass and energy. So, applied to this case, it would not only apply to objects, but also to the path of light. When a galaxy aligns with a more distant galaxy and Earth, the light from the distant galaxy bends around the foreground galaxy, forming a ring. This effect is known as gravitational lensing.
The ring captured by Euclid is one of the clearest representations of this phenomenon and confirms that gravity can act as a cosmic lens, amplifying and distorting the light from distant objects.
How Euclid managed to capture this image
The Euclid telescope was launched in July 2023 with the aim of creating a map of the universe and studying the role of dark matter and dark energy in the expansion of the cosmos, but the detection of this ring demonstrates its extraordinary precision and ability to reveal structures invisible to the naked eye.
Is this important for astronomy?
Sure! Not only does it reinforce the theory of general relativity (which has already been confirmed several times), but with this discovery astronomers will be able to measure with greater precision how matter is distributed within NGC 6505. So, more than a century later, Einstein’s ideas continue to be confirmed with advanced technology. It seems as if the genius was also a visionary!
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