Hi Ryan,
Good job working out the consequences of
bending light in a gravitational field! This is a great example of
exercising the scientific method: 1) formulate a hypothesis; 2) test
its predictions by performing an experiment or observing something in
Nature.
Your idea is correct. Here is an example of a ring of
images of a quasar behind a lensing galaxy, obtained with the Hubble
Space telescope.
This figure came from at NASA.
If
the lensing galaxy were symmetrical around the line between us and the
quasar, and if it is centered right on that line, we'd get a complete
ring. As it is, the distributions are off-axis and nonuniform and so we
observe multiple "arcs".
Tom J.
(published on 10/22/2007)
