A Cosmic Challenge October 30, 2008
Posted by Sarah in science.Tags: astronomy, cosmology, dark energy, gravitational lensing, ucl
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Galaxies Magnified by Galaxy Cluster Abell 1689
Cosmology, the study of the Universe on the very largest of scales, is a frustrating business. The vast majority of the matter in the Universe is unaccounted for, and of a large fraction, which we call Dark Energy, we have no idea what it even might look like, let alone how to find it. One important source of information comes from the study of gravitational lenses. When light from the most distant sources travels across the Universe, it is distorted by intervening matter, as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. By studying the distortions seen in these distant objects, cosmologists gather information about the properties of the large-scale matter distribution along the line of sight.
