Using the Hubble Space Telescope and gravitational lensing, astronomers have set a new distance record for the farthest individual star ever seen: 9 billion light years! One of those astronomers includes Dr. Brenda Frye from the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy, and blogger for the Catholic Astronomer! Tucson News Now What is Gravitational Lensing? Massive objects in space have gravitational fields associated with them(1); the more massive the object, the stronger its gravitational field. Galaxies are massive objects with large gravitational fields – galaxy clusters even more so. Strong gravitational fields can bend light – much like the lens of a refracting telescope. If a distant galaxy is lined up just right with a galaxy cluster and the Earth, light from the distant galaxy will be bent and magnified by the gravity of the galaxy cluster. Astronomers have found numerous examples of this type of gravitational lensing – many examples appearing as smears or odd elliptical shapes. For the first time, astronomers … Continue reading →