Hubble Telescope Discovers a Light-Bending 'Einstein Ring' In Space

[DamianTV]

https://science.slashdot.org/story/...covers-a-light-bending-einstein-ring-in-space

Space.com reports of the Hubble Space Telescope's discovery of a light-bending "Einstein Ring" in space:

The perfect circle surrounding a galaxy cluster in a new Hubble Space Telescope image is a visual indicator of the huge masses that are bending time and space in that region. The galaxy cluster, called SDSS J0146-0929, features hundreds of individual galaxies all bound together by gravity. There's so much mass in this region that the cluster is distorting light from objects behind it. This phenomenon is called an Einstein ring. The ring is created as the light that comes from distant objects, like galaxies, passes by "an extremely large mass, like this galaxy cluster," NASA said in a statement. "In this image, the light from a background galaxy is diverted and distorted around the massive intervening cluster and forced to travel along many different light paths toward Earth, making it seem as though the galaxy is in several places at once." The ring is named after Albert Einstein, who wrote his theory of general relativity in the early 1900s. In it, he suggested that a massive object would warp space and time. This process is known today as a gravitational lens. When the most massive galaxies and galaxy clusters get in line with a more distant object, they produce an Einstein ring -- a type of gravitational lens.

So for you physics guys, what about "gravity" not existing at all? Yes, there is a "force" that we feel, but gravity as we understand it may not exist. Trouble is, getting rid of "gravity" as we know it pretty much requires we replace it with something else. Wanna twist your minds a little? How about this concept: "Things 'Fall' where TIME flows slowest". So replace gravity with a distortion in the flow rate of time! Things get all sorts of weird now, dont they? Just a fun idea to play around with so far, but I think it could go much further...

 

[pmbug]

... what about "gravity" not existing at all? Yes, there is a "force" that we feel, but gravity as we understand it may not exist. ...

Gravity is just an elaborate ruse?

 

[DamianTV]

Gravity is just an elaborate ruse?

Just saying we can easily quantify what it does, but have a very difficult time of explaining what it is. The difference is an advancement of our own understanding. Sir Issac Newton never heard of Dark Matter or Dark Energy. The physics we are working with today are rooted and based on Newtons contributions, but only some of our ideas fully incorporate Einsteins physics. Things still "fall down" all the same, but gravity itself isnt a Primary Force, as Electromagnetism and the Strong and Weak Nuclear forces. Gravity has been described as a "very weak force" in comparison to our other primary forces, and that has always puzzled scientists. But exchanging gravity as a force with math that expresses that pull as a distortion in the Time part of Spacetime makes a lot of sense. Before Einstein, we referred to Spacetime as "The Ether" because we didnt understand how gravity and light could travel through the nothing in empty space.

 

[Danke]

Gravity is just an elaborate ruse?

All I know is if I tried, I'd run out of fuel first if I tried to fly to the edge of our planet, or my engines would probably flame out with the lack of air.

 

[jkr]

Gravity is a fundamental Force but it's a highly localized phenomena I think what people say does not exist is centripetal Force (center seeking) I believe centripetal is theoretical only

 

[fedupinmo]

So the light gets wibbly wobbly because of the timey wimey?