Albert Einstein •

The NASA astronomers have for the first time spotted a distant supernova split into four celestial images.

The space scientists used NASA’s Hubble space telescope to detect the multiple images of the exploding star that are triggered by the powerful gravity of a foreground elliptical galaxy which is embedded in a giant cluster of galaxies.

According to the researchers, the unique observation will help them in refining their estimates of the dark matter’s mass in the lensing galaxy and cluster.

Most of the mass of the universe is formed of an invisible form of matter called Dark matter.

Lead study author Patrick Kelly, from the University of California, said, “It really threw me for a loop when I spotted the four images surrounding the galaxy – it was a complete surprise.”

The elliptical galaxy and its galaxy cluster, named MACS J1149.6+2223, are five billion light-years away from the Earth. The supernova which is behind it is 9.3 billion light-years away.

With the fading of the four photos, the astronomers made the predictions that they will again get a rare opportunity to witness the supernova. This is due to the current four-image pattern which is only one component of the display of lensing.

The supernova has likely appeared as a single photo approximately 20 years ago elsewhere in the cluster field, and it may reappear once more in nearly a decade.

According to the scientists, the measurement of the time delays between the photographs will offer greater clues to the type of warped-space terrain possessed by the light of supernova to cover and will also help the astronomers in fine-tuning the models that map out the cluster’s mass.

NASA astronomers said, “We will measure the time delays, and we will go back and compare to the model predictions of the light path.”

The research paper was published in the special issue of journal Science on the occasion of centenary of Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.

When anyone asks about Albert Einstein, the first thing coming to mind is the word ‘genius’. But a newly released archive by the Princeton University offers a lot more about the great scientist who had contribute immensely in the field of science.

The Princeton University has made public the online version of its ‘Einstein Papers Project’ that contains the scientist’s personal documents, papers, letters, diaries, divorce file and other documents bequeathed to history by Einstein himself.

The archive will allow the online readers to know more about the thoughts and work of the great scientist.

Einstein had granted the copyright to his work to the Princeton University Press. The varsity has introduced the Digital Einstein archive, containing Einstein’s documents like his love letters, a high school transcript, his divorce papers and the notebook featuring his crucial work on general theory of relativity.

The university has posted online around 5,000 searchable documents taken from the first 44 years of the life of the scientist in both the original German and also in English translations. The documents cover a period ended with his winning of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921.

Diana Kormos-Buchwald, director of the Einstein Papers Project, says, “We want to make everything accessible to a much wider audience than just the scholars, historians, physicists and philosophers. It’s been a challenge to get all the material online, but I’m extremely thrilled that we have succeeded.”

According to the sources, more materials will be included to the archive as they are printed by the university press.

Among the documents include letters that Einstein wrote to his future wife Mileva Maric following the birth of their first child. Some of the letters also talked about his struggles to become a public fame as well as his pacifist sentiments after the First World War.

Einstein later began affair with a cousin, Elsa Lowenthal, and would marry her following divorce with Maric.

In a 1912 letter written to Lowenthal, Einstein wrote, “Both of us are poor devils, each shackled to his unrelenting duties. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for you, and how much I would like to be something to you. But if we give in to our affection for each other, only confusion and misfortune will result. You know this only too well.”

The archive also showed Einstein’s human side to a wider audience, said Buchwald.

“What I hope people take away is that Einstein was never the isolated scientist in the attic with a pen and paper, that image that seems to persist. He had a huge network of friends, colleagues and collaborators,” she said.

NASA’s Hubble detects supernova split into four celestial images

Princeton University press offers more about Albert Einstein’s life online

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