Here are some things we know to be true: Gravity bends spacetime. Light must curve along those bends. Curved light can create lensing. Lensing leads to magnification. What does all that mean? Gravitational lensing can be used to create telescopes more powerful than anything that has ever been deployed before. A gravitational lens telescope using the impact of the sun on spacetime could be powerful enough to map the surfaces of exoplanets. Here’s a video from Launch Pad Astronomy and an article from Popular Science on the creation of a solar gravity lens:
…Slava Turyshev, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, is trying to harness one of these gravitational lenses closer to home, using our sun. In a new paper posted to the pre-print server arXiv, Turyshev computes all the detailed math and physics needed to show that it is actually possible to harness our sun’s gravity in this way, with some pretty neat uses. A so-called “solar gravitational lens” (SGL) could help us beam light messages into the stars for interstellar communication or investigate the surfaces of distant exoplanets.
“By harnessing the gravitational lensing effect of our star, astronomy would experience a revolutionary leap in observing capability,” says Nick Tusay, a Penn State astronomer not involved in the new work. “Light works both ways, so it could also boost our transmitting capability as well, if we had anyone out there to communicate with.”
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