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Gravitational lensing, illustration
Gravitational lensing. Illustration showing how gravitational lensing can be used to view otherwise unobservable objects, in this case a galaxy (upper centre). Light rays from a distant object are bent as they pass through the gravitational field of a star (centre) or other massive object. The light is deflected from its original path. This bending of light by a massive object was predicted by Einstein in 1916 in his General theory of Relativity. The light from a distant object can be lensed into a variety of shapes and forms, including arcs, multiple images, or an 'Einstein ring'. The grey grid, dimpled below the star, represents space-time. In Einstein's theory, gravity is the warping of spacetime by mass.
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