Gravitational lensing as a research area investigates the deflection, magnification, and distortion of light from distant sources by intervening mass distributions, as predicted by general relativity, and develops methods to use these effects as astrophysical and cosmological probes. It encompasses strong, weak, and microlensing regimes, focusing on reconstructing mass profiles of galaxies and clusters, mapping dark matter, constraining dark energy via lensing statistics and cosmic shear, and testing gravity on large scales. The field integrates theoretical modeling, numerical simulations, and analysis of large imaging and spectroscopic surveys, emphasizing inverse problems, bias control, and statistical inference to extract cosmological parameters and substructure properties.
For the first time, an international research team led by the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has demonstrated that applying pixelized strong-lensing modeling on a galaxy cluster ...
Astronomy
Nov 3, 2025
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Periodically, the European Space Agency (ESA) releases images that provide breathtaking views of the cosmos, courtesy of its premier missions. This includes a relative newcomer to party with the ESA/Webb Picture of the Month, ...
Astronomy
Oct 7, 2025
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When Rutgers theoretical astrophysicist Charles Keeton first saw an unusual picture shared by his colleague, he was intrigued.
Astronomy
Sep 16, 2025
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Astronomers are living in a golden age of bigger and better telescopes. But even our most advanced technology pales in comparison to the power of nature's own "cosmic magnifying glasses"—strong gravitational lenses.
Astronomy
Aug 20, 2025
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Sometimes, in order to support an idea, you first have to discredit alternative, competing ideas that could take resources away from the one you care about. In the scientific community, one of the most devastating ways you ...
Astronomy
Jul 14, 2025
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Combining the way that massive galaxies and galaxy clusters bend space and magnify our view of the distant universe with powerful new instruments sensitive to gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation will lead to ...
Astronomy
Jun 12, 2025
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Dark matter affects how stars move within galaxies, how galaxies build up over time, and how everything in the universe is held together—but no existing tool has directly detected it. While dark matter does not reflect, absorb, ...
Astronomy
Jun 12, 2025
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This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image offers us the chance to see a distant galaxy now some 19.5 billion light-years from Earth (but appearing as it did around 11 billion years ago, when the galaxy was 5.5 billion light-years ...
Astronomy
May 20, 2025
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The solar gravitation lens (SGL) has much potential as a telescope. This point in space, located about 650 AU away from the sun, uses fundamental properties of physics to amplify the light from extremely far-away objects, ...
Astronomy
May 6, 2025
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Let's turn the sun into a telescope. In fact, we don't have to do any work—we just have to be in the right spot.
Astronomy
Apr 23, 2025
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