GRAVITY Resolves a Gravitationally Microlensed Star
The GRAVITY instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has seen what seems an impossible sight...
...intricate details of one star gravitationally microlensed by another passing in front of it.
When an amateur astronomer noticed an unremarkable star in the Milky Way increasing in brightness...
...ESO's astronomers were awarded a special opportunity to hurriedly observe it with the VLTI.
They spotted the double, magnified images of the gravitationally microlensed background star...
...a sight that Albert Einstein predicted to be almost impossible to observe.
Thanks to decades of developing advanced instruments...
...it is now possible to observe the minuscule effects of stellar microlensing.
With this method, ESO's VLTI may uncover hidden and dark objects lurking in our galaxy - like rogue exoplanets and black holes.