These eight images, taken by Hubble Space Telecope between August 2004 and March 2005, demonstrate the Bullseye model of an Einstein ring. The rings were discovered as part of the Sloan Lens ACS survey to search for gravitation lenses. Credit: NASA/ESA/SLACS; Survey team: A. Bolton (Harvard/Smithsonian), S. Burles (MIT), L. Koopmans (Kapteyn), T.treu (UCSB), L. Moustakas (Jpl/Caltech)
At the beginning of 1987, a team led by Jacqueline Hewitt Del Mit was imagining radio-emitting objects with very large RadioTelescopio to array as part of a survey of gravitational lenses. The unusual aspect of the MG1131+0456 object – an oval with bright points elongated at the ends – led to further investigations and in the end the researchers concluded that it was the first observation of an Einstein ring. The discovery was published in the number of 9 June 1988 of Nature. Initially expected by Albert Einstein in 1936, Einstein’s rings are formed when two objects, such as galaxies, quasar or stars, are perfectly aligned with our view and the light from the most distant object is slow or folded, from that in the foreground, creating a ring around it. Further research on gravitation objective and Einstein’s rings can help astronomers learn more on the galaxy masses, on the expansion of the universe and the nature of the dark matter.
