Astronomers Get a Boost from Gravity
Astronomers who survey galaxies in the distant universe are getting some unexpected help from gravity, according to a new study.
In a presentation at the American Astronomical Society meeting and a related paper in the current issue of the journal Nature, Haojing Yan, co-author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAP) and researchers say that as many as 20 percent of the most distant galaxies currently detected appear brighter than they actually are, because of an effect called “strong gravitational lensing.”
The discovery could change astronomers’ notions of how galaxies formed in the early universe.
Yan said that astronomers have long known about strong gravitational lensing, but thought it only happens rarely, and wouldn’t have any real impact on galaxy surveys.