The Dark Energy Survey collected more than 34,000 exposures during its science verification (SV) phase, from November 2012 to February 2013. It also began its first official season of observations on Aug. 31. Among the
The Dark Energy Survey collected more than 34,000 exposures during its science verification (SV) phase, from November 2012 to February 2013. It also began its first official season of observations on Aug. 31. Among the millions of astronomical objects imaged by DES so far, there are rare instances of “strong lensing” systems, where the effects of general relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity, are demonstrated in visually striking fashion.
When a foreground “lens” object is by chance very closely aligned on the sky with a much more distant background “source” object, the light from the source may be significantly deflected as it passes by the lens, due to the gravity of the lensing object’s mass. This strong lensing effect leads to big