Gravitational lens

A gravitational lens is matter, such as a cluster of galaxies or a point particle, that bends light from a distant source as it travels toward an observer. The amount of gravitational lensing is described by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity with much greater accuracy than Newtonian physics, which treats light as corpuscles travelling at the speed of light.

General relativity
${\displaystyle G_{\mu \nu }+\Lambda g_{\mu \nu }={\kappa }T_{\mu \nu }}$
Introduction History Timeline Tests Mathematical formulation
Fundamental concepts Equivalence principle Special relativity World line Pseudo-Riemannian manifold
Phenomena Kepler problem Gravitational lensing Gravitational red shift Gravitational time dilation Gravitational waves Frame-dragging Geodetic effect Event horizon Singularity Black hole Spacetime Spacetime diagrams Minkowski spacetime Einstein–Rosen bridge
Equations Formalisms Equations Linearized gravity Einstein field equations Friedmann Geodesics Mathisson–Papapetrou–Dixon Hamilton–Jacobi–Einstein Formalisms ADM BSSN Post-Newtonian Advanced theory Kaluza–Klein theory Quantum gravity
Solutions Schwarzschild (interior) Reissner–Nordström Gödel Kerr Kerr–Newman Kerr–Newman–de Sitter Kasner Lemaître–Tolman Taub–NUT Milne Robertson–Walker Oppenheimer–Snyder pp-wave van Stockum dust Weyl−Lewis−Papapetrou
Scientists Einstein Lorentz Hilbert Poincaré Schwarzschild de Sitter Reissner Nordström Weyl Eddington Friedman Milne Zwicky Lemaître Oppenheimer Gödel Wheeler Robertson Bardeen Walker Kerr Chandrasekhar Ehlers Penrose Hawking Raychaudhuri Taylor Hulse van Stockum Taub Newman Yau Thorne others
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Orest Khvolson (1924) and Frantisek Link (1936) are generally credited with being the first to discuss the effect in print, but it is more commonly associated with Einstein, who made unpublished calculations on it in 1912 and published an article on the subject in 1936.

In 1937, Fritz Zwicky posited that galaxy clusters could act as gravitational lenses, a claim confirmed in 1979 by observation of the Twin QSO SBS 0957+561.