Found an Einstein Ring in Distant Universe

Georges H
Georges H
Joined: 5 Jun 05
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Topic 189478

Hi folks,

I've currently read an interesting article on a german news site about an Einstein Ring
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/0,1518,363169,00.html

Similar articles in English
http://www.hq.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2005/phot-20-05.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7614&feedId=online-news_rss20
http://www.physorg.com/news4853.html

Greets from Luxembourg,

Georges

Chipper Q
Chipper Q
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Found an Einstein Ring in Distant Universe


Magnificent...

Considering the relative motions between the two galaxies and observers, and the immense distances between them, how long will the ring last (be visible as such)? Will it be hundreds of years, or thousands of years, or millions of years?

Georges H
Georges H
Joined: 5 Jun 05
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Credit: 6,496,960
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RE: Considering the

Message 13748 in response to message 13747

Quote:
Considering the relative motions between the two galaxies and observers, and the immense distances between them, how long will the ring last (be visible as such)? Will it be hundreds of years, or thousands of years, or millions of years?

Well as a computer science student I can't tell you...

I suggest that we can se the ring as long as the galaxy which acts as a lense is between us (our earth) and the other very distant galaxy ;-)

On one of the sites which I mentioned above you'll also find a very interesting scientifical paper describing this research.
http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/aa/pdf/press-releases/PRAA200510.pdf

Georges

MarkF
MarkF
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Can't give precise answer

Can't give precise answer because there are too many unknowns. Because of the vast distances the any change in relative positons of the two galaxies would be extermly slow. If the relative traverse velocity of the nearer galaxy is 1 kilometer per second it would take about 11,600,000 years to shift the alignment by 1 milli-arsecond.
I can't say for certain if the various numbers are represenative but I beleive they are in the correct range.

Chipper Q
Chipper Q
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RE: On one of the sites

Message 13750 in response to message 13748

Quote:

On one of the sites which I mentioned above you'll also find a very interesting scientifical paper describing this research.
http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/aa/pdf/press-releases/PRAA200510.pdf


Strained the gray matter reading that one, but it was worth it:

Quote:

Additional observations are clearly required to further constrain
this lens, and to study the interstellar medium and the
stellar populations at a look-back time of 88% of the present
age of the universe.


Studying the evolution of this ring should provide some very valuable data.

Revolution
Revolution
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I've read of quite a few

I've read of quite a few discoveries of gravitational lensing. One even where the lensing distortion was removed to reveal the major features (shape?) of the distant galaxy.

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