Gravitational Lensing

In a long line of intellectual triumphs, Einstein’s theory of general relativity was his greatest and most imaginative. It tells us that what we experience as gravity can be most accurately described as the bending of space itself. This idea leads to consequences, including gravitational lensing, which is caused by light traveling in this curved space. This is works in a way analogous to a lens (and hence the name). In this video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln explains a little general relativity, a little gravitational lensing, and tells us how this phenomenon allows us to map out the matter of the entire universe, including the otherwise-invisible dark matter.

 

Gravitational Lensing

KIPAC visualization expert Ralf Kaehler and his colleague astrophysicist Tom Abel joined forces with Carter Emmart, the history museum's director of astrovisualization, and Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, a museum curator and professor at Columbia University. They turned numerical simulations calculated by Abel and then-KIPAC astrophysicist Oliver Hahn into striking scenes.

 

Public Lecture—The Dark Universe Through Einstein's Lens

Lecture Date: Tuesday, July 23rd. Debbie Bard, a staff scientist at SLAC and a member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, delivered the July 23 SLAC Public Lecture, "The Dark Universe Through Einstein's Lens."

 Bard's talk explains the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing and how astrophysicists use it to explore the 95 percent of the universe that remains unseen: dark matter and dark energy.