Context:
The Hubble Space Telescope measured the mass of a white dwarf designated LAWD 37, which burned out over 1 billion years ago. In the work, scientists used a phenomenon called gravitational lensing.
Relevance:
GS III: Science and Technology
Dimensions of the Article:
- What is Gravitational lensing?
- About the Hubble telescope
What is Gravitational lensing?
- Gravitational lensing is the bending of light by objects of great mass, first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915.
- It occurs when a massive object, like a cluster of galaxies, creates a gravitational field that distorts and magnifies the light from distant galaxies.
- This allows researchers to study details of early galaxies too far away to be seen with the most powerful telescopes.
About the Hubble telescope
- The Hubble Space Telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990.
- It is a large, space-based observatory that has revolutionized astronomy with its coverage from ultraviolet to near infrared.
- Hubble is part of NASA’s Great Observatories Program, which also includes the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO).
-Source: Indian Express
