File:Hubble Measures Deflection of Starlight by a Foreground Object (heic2301b).jpg
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Size of this preview: 800 × 587 pixels. Other resolutions: 320 × 235 pixels | 640 × 469 pixels | 1,024 × 751 pixels | 1,280 × 939 pixels | 2,560 × 1,878 pixels | 4,250 × 3,117 pixels.
Original file (4,250 × 3,117 pixels, file size: 1.24 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
File information
Structured data
Captions
Summary
[edit]DescriptionHubble Measures Deflection of Starlight by a Foreground Object (heic2301b).jpg |
English: This illustration shows how the gravity of a foreground white dwarf star warps space and bends the light from a distant star behind it. Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time directly measured the mass of a single, isolated star other than our Sun — thanks to this optical trick of nature. The target was a white dwarf — the surviving core of a burned-out Sun-like star. The greater the temporary, infinitesimal deflection of the background star’s image, the more massive the foreground star is. Researchers found that the dwarf is 56 percent the mass of our Sun.This effect, called gravitational lensing, was predicted as a consequence of Einstein’s general theory of relativity from a century ago. Observations of a solar eclipse in 1919 provided the first experimental proof for general relativity. But Einstein didn’t think the same experiment could be done for stars beyond our Sun because of the extraordinary precision required. |
Date | 2 February 2023 (upload date) |
Source | Hubble Measures Deflection of Starlight by a Foreground Object |
Author | NASA, ESA, A. Feild |
Other versions |
|
Licensing
[edit]ESA/Hubble images, videos and web texts are released by the ESA under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided they are clearly and visibly credited. Detailed conditions are below; see the ESA copyright statement for full information. For images created by NASA or on the hubblesite.org website, or for ESA/Hubble images on the esahubble.org site before 2009, use the {{PD-Hubble}} tag.
Conditions:
Notes:
|
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Attribution: ESA/Hubble
- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 21:58, 16 April 2023 | 4,250 × 3,117 (1.24 MB) | OptimusPrimeBot (talk | contribs) | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/images/large/heic2301b.jpg via Commons:Spacemedia |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
There are no pages that use this file.
Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Author | Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach |
---|---|
Credit/Provider | NASA, ESA, A. Feild |
Source | ESA/Hubble |
Short title |
|
Image title |
|
Usage terms |
|
Date and time of data generation | 16:00, 2 February 2023 |
JPEG file comment | This illustration shows how the gravity of a foreground white dwarf star warps space and bends the light of a distant star behind it. Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time directly measured the mass of a single, isolated star other than our Sun – due to this optical trick of nature. The target was a white dwarf – the surviving core of a burned-out Sun-like star. The greater the temporary, infinitesimal deflection of the background star’s image, the more massive the foreground star is. (This deviation is so small that it is equivalent to observing an ant crawl across the surface of a quarter from 1,500 miles away.) Researchers found that the dwarf is 56 percent the mass of our Sun. This effect, called gravitational lensing was predicted as a consequence of Einstein’s theory of general relativity from a century ago. Observations of a solar eclipse in 1919 provided the first direct evidence for general relativity. But Einstein didn’t think the same experiment could be done for stars beyond our Sun because of the extraordinary precision required. |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 (Macintosh) |
File change date and time | 13:43, 31 May 2017 |
Date and time of digitizing | 11:16, 15 December 2016 |
Date metadata was last modified | 06:51, 26 January 2023 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:c138c118-66cf-4a43-a812-a4b459d2d7f1 |
Contact information | outreach@stsci.edu
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr Baltimore, MD, 21218 United States |
IIM version | 4 |