Sign In
Learn bits
Science & Tech.
Mahesh

12/02/25 18:43 PM IST

Scientists discover ‘Einstein ring’ around nearby galaxy

In News
  • The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope has discovered a rare ring of light, known as an Einstein ring, around a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away from Earth.
Einstein ring
  • An Einstein ring is a ring of light around a form of dark matter, galaxy or cluster of galaxies.
  • It is essentially an example of gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon which occurs when a massive celestial body — such as a galaxy or cluster of galaxies — creates a gravitational field which distorts and amplifies the light from distant galaxies that are behind it but in the same line of sight.
  • The body causing the light to curve is called a gravitational lens.
  • In the case of the recently discovered Einstein ring, NGC 6505 was the gravitational lens.
  • The nearer galaxy distorted and amplified the light coming from a distant unnamed galaxy, located 4.42 billion light-years away.
  • A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 9.46 trillion kilometres.
  • Einstein rings are named after mathematician and physicist Albert Einstein, whose general theory of relativity predicted that light could bend and brighten around objects across the cosmos.
  • The first Einstein ring was discovered in 1987, and since then, several more have been discovered.
  • However, it remains unclear how many such rings exist. Notably, they are extremely rare — less than 1% of galaxies have an Einstein ring.
  • Einstein rings are not visible to the naked eye, and can be observed only through space telescopes such as Euclid.
Significance
  • These rings help scientists investigate dark matter, which has never been detected but is believed to make up 85% of the total matter in the universe.
  • This dark matter does not interact with light, but it does have a gravitational effect…
  • Gravitational lensing therefore is sensitive to the presence of this dark matter, allowing us to indirectly detect it.
  • Einstein rings enable scientists to learn about distant galaxies, which otherwise might not be visible.
  • They can also provide information about the expansion of the universe as the space between the Earth and other galaxies — both in the foreground and the background — is stretching.
Source- Indian Express

More Related Current Affairs View All

12 Feb

UK-India Young Professionals Scheme

'The ballot for this year’s United Kingdom-India Young Professionals Scheme (YPS) will open next week. ' The scheme offers both British and Indian nationals the opportunit

Read More

11 Feb

International Criminal Court

'US President Donald Trump has authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as

Read More

06 Feb

Supreme Court directive on sacred groves

'The Supreme Court directed the Forest Department of Rajasthan to map on the ground and via satellite every ‘sacred grove’ in detail.' They were to be identified irr

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps