Tag

Gravitational Lensing

All articles tagged with #gravitational lensing

science10 days ago•2 min saved

Webb Reveals Rare Quadruple Images in Galaxy Cluster MACS J0454.1-0300

The James Webb Space Telescope has released its latest Picture of the Month, showcasing the galaxy cluster MACS J0454.1-0300. This image highlights extreme gravitational lensing, where the cluster’s mass bends light from background galaxies, creating warped, multiplied, and magnified views. The cluster is located five billion light-years away, allowing scientists to observe the universe as it existed eight billion years ago. Notably, the image captures a rare configuration where four or more images of the same background galaxy appear, a phenomenon seen in only 10-20% of clusters. Webb’s superior sensitivity reveals hundreds of galaxies missed by Hubble’s 2014 observation of the same area, demonstrating its ability to detect fainter, redder light and push the limits of cosmic observation.

via PetaPixel|

#astronomy #cosmic-mirrors #gravitational-lensing

science26 days ago•12 min saved

Hunting the Universe’s First Stars with Gravitational Lenses

Population III stars formed from pristine gas roughly 100–250 million years after the Big Bang and, if massive, burned bright for only a few million years before dying and seeding heavier elements. No individual Pop III star has been definitively identified, largely because their light is faint and rare to spot, but gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters—along with JWST’s infrared power—offers a path to detect them. Earendel, a highly magnified star behind a foreground cluster, demonstrates the lensing method, though it is not a Pop III star. Detecting a true first star would require precise lens models and spectroscopy proving a pristine, metal-free atmosphere, plus accounting for microlensing variability. A confirmed Pop III detection would illuminate the early mass distribution of the first stars and the timeline of metal enrichment, though such a star may still remain elusive across the cosmos.

via Space Daily|

#early-universe #first-stars #gravitational-lensing

science1 month ago•3 min saved

Gravitational Lensing May Turn GW231123 into an Ordinary Black-Hole Merger

A new study suggests GW231123's 'impossible' mass may be due to gravitational lensing, which would mask a final black hole of about 140 solar masses as about 225 solar masses. If true, the event would fit existing black-hole formation models and avoid the pair-instability mass gap, but the lensing explanation is not yet proven and remains a caveat rather than a confirmed cause. Gravitational-wave lensing could become a valuable tool for future discoveries.

via Gizmodo|

#astrophysics #black-holes #gravitational-lensing

space1 month ago•135 min saved

Cosmic Lens Could Rewrite a Massive Black-Hole Merger

A Space.com report notes researchers modeling the GW231123 gravitational-wave event suggest the unusually high inferred masses of the merging black holes could be an illusion caused by gravitational lensing. If a foreground object (roughly 190–850 solar masses) or a globular cluster lenses the signal, the true masses could be around 140 and 100 solar masses, avoiding the need for extreme spins. The lens’s exact nature remains unknown, and confirming lensing in future events will require more sensitive detectors; the team published their findings in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

via Space|

#black-holes #gravitational-lensing #gravitational-waves

space1 month ago•4 min saved

Astronomers Spot the Universe's Lightless Micro-Object with a Global Telescope Network

Astronomers using a network of radio and optical telescopes detected the Universe’s lightless object with about one million solar masses via gravitational lensing, potentially a dense dark-matter clump or an inactive dwarf galaxy, offering a new way to test cold dark matter theories.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|

#astronomy #cosmology #dark-matter

science1 month ago•10 min saved

NASA's Roman Space Telescope Set to Unveil Dark Forces and New Worlds

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launching from Kennedy Space Center, will map hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies with a wide infrared view, search for up to 200,000 exoplanets via transits and microlensing, and probe dark matter and dark energy through weak gravitational lensing—potentially addressing key cosmological tensions and expanding our understanding of the universe.

via WIRED|

#dark-energy #dark-matter #exoplanets

science1 month ago•46 min saved

Dark Matter as a Cosmic Magnifier Reveals Neutrino Origins

Researchers propose that some IceCube neutrino detections are magnified by gravitational lensing from a dark-matter filament deflecting emissions from the blazar PKS 2233-148, a finding that could sharpen our view of how neutrinos are produced and the black hole at a blazar’s core.

via Yahoo|

#blazar-pks-2233-148 #dark-matter #gravitational-lensing

science1 month ago•160 min saved

Invisible dark-matter lens briefly boosts a blazar’s jet, hinting at neutrino sources

Astronomers report that the jet from a distant blazar (PKS 2233-148) is being gravitationally lensed by an unseen dark-matter clump, temporarily magnifying the jet and potentially aiding the search for high-energy neutrino sources; the finding, supported by VLBA, Fermi, and Swift observations and published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offers a first hint that dark-matter substructure can produce lensing effects in relativistic cosmic jets.

via Space|

#blazar #dark-matter #gravitational-lensing

space1 month ago•13 min saved

Ancient Quasar Enveloped by a Vast Water Vapor Halo

Astronomers modeling a diffuse reservoir of water vapor around the gravitationally lensed quasar APM 08279+5255 (redshift 3.91) report an inventory equivalent to about 140 trillion times Earth’s oceans, and a total water mass around 100,000 solar masses; the figure is model-dependent and hinges on lens magnification, gas excitation by infrared radiation, and the assumed molecular-gas mass. The detection relies on multiple water emission lines rather than a direct image or measurement of liquid water, and places water in the environment of a feeding supermassive black hole when the universe was about 1.6 billion years old, roughly 12 billion years in light-travel time. The result highlights water as a tracer of physical conditions in the early universe and underscores the uncertainties introduced by gravitational lensing.

via Space Daily|

#apm-082795255 #early-universe #gravitational-lensing

science2 months ago•5 min saved

JWST uncovers a fresh gravitational arc, hinting at galaxies from the universe’s early era

Astronomers using JWST/NIRCam data from the RELICS program identified a bright, elongated gravitational arc behind the galaxy cluster MACS J0308.9+2645 (A1). Initial analysis suggested a redshift around z~4.4 with a magnification of ~7, placing it in the universe’s first billion years, but corrected photometry indicates a lower redshift near z~1.4, and a second, fainter candidate (A2) was found. The result implies many more early-universe galaxies may lie in Webb’s public data, and it underscores the need for independent verification and updated lens models due to potential photometry biases for extended sources.

via Universe Today|

#early-universe #gravitational-lensing #jwst

space2 months ago•10 min saved

Ten Space Revelations Redraw the Cosmos

Ten recent space discoveries—ranging from neon hints of Mars’ recent volcanism and the mature early galaxy Zhúlóng seen by JWST, to newborn planets around PDS 70 and a possible fifth world near L 98-59—demonstrate how JWST and Hubble are reshaping our understanding of planet formation, galaxy evolution, and cosmic history, while prompting new views on the Milky Way–Andromeda fate and the Sun’s distant future.

via Listverse|

#cosmology #exoplanets #galaxies

space3 months ago•101 min saved

James Webb Spots Ancient Galaxy Cluster Acting as a Cosmic Magnifier

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed XLSSC 122, a massive galaxy cluster seen as it was about 10.4 billion years ago (roughly 3.4 billion years after the Big Bang). The cluster is unusually evolved, and it serves as a gravitational lens that magnifies distant background galaxies, making XLSSC 122 the most distant cluster observed with strong lensing. This finding could prompt revisions to theories of early structure formation and offers a new way to study dark matter’s distribution. The team presented their results at the 2026 American Astronomical Society meeting, highlighting JWST’s power to probe the distant universe and the potential discovery of many similar lensing clusters in the early cosmos.

via Space|

#dark-matter #galaxy-cluster #gravitational-lensing

space-science3 months ago•6 min saved

Dusty Galaxy Emerges as Possible Source of Ghost Neutrinos

A high-energy neutrino detected by IceCube may have originated from Shadow Blaster, a dust-enshrouded, intensely star-forming galaxy 11 billion light-years away that is gravitationally lensed. This link, while tentative (about 1% chance of a random coincidence), suggests star-forming galaxies could contribute a significant fraction of the diffuse neutrino background, and motivates deeper multiwavelength follow-up with facilities like ALMA and JWST to pinpoint more such sources.

via CNN|

#gravitational-lensing #icecube #neutrinos

science3 months ago•13 min saved

JWST Reveals Dense Dark-Matter Core in Distant Galaxy Cluster XLSSC 122

JWST’s view of XLSSC 122, a galaxy cluster at z=1.98 (~10.4 billion light-years away), shows background galaxies lensed into arcs, enabling a map of the cluster’s dense inner mass. The unusually concentrated core for its cosmic noon era points to merger-driven growth, and XLSSC 122 also acts as a natural telescope, magnifying even more distant galaxies to probe dark matter and structure formation.

via Space Daily|

#cosmic-noon #dark-matter #gravitational-lensing

science3 months ago•97 min saved

Dusty Galaxy Shadow Blaster Pinpoints Home of High-Energy Neutrino

Astronomers trace a high-energy neutrino detected by IceCube to Shadow Blaster, a dust-rich, strongly gravitationally lensed star-forming galaxy about 11 billion light-years away. This marks the first direct link between a single dusty galaxy and a high-energy neutrino, suggesting such galaxies can be significant sources of cosmic neutrinos and could contribute up to ~20% of the diffuse neutrino background; the finding, published in Nature Astronomy, relied on observations from JCMT, SMA, ALMA, and Gemini to map the galaxy’s dense, star-forming core and its lensing mass.

via Space|

#gravitational-lensing #icecube #neutrinos