1 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,000 GRAVITY Resolves a Gravitationally Microlensed Star 2 00:00:13,135 --> 00:00:23,000 The GRAVITY instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has seen what seems an impossible sight... 3 00:00:25,135 --> 00:00:31,000 ...intricate details of one star gravitationally microlensed by another passing in front of it. 4 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:41,500 When an amateur astronomer noticed an unremarkable star in the Milky Way increasing in brightness... 5 00:00:44,765 --> 00:00:50,000 ...ESO's astronomers were awarded a special opportunity to hurriedly observe it with the VLTI. 6 00:00:53,055 --> 00:00:59,000 They spotted the double, magnified images of the gravitationally microlensed background star... 7 00:01:00,500 --> 00:01:07,000 ...a sight that Albert Einstein predicted to be almost impossible to observe. 8 00:01:09,700 --> 00:01:16,000 Thanks to decades of developing advanced instruments... 9 00:01:18,500 --> 00:01:23,000 ...it is now possible to observe the minuscule effects of stellar microlensing. 10 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:33,500 With this method, ESO's VLTI may uncover hidden and dark objects lurking in our galaxy - like rogue exoplanets and black holes.