Related papers: The Legacy of Einstein's Eclipse, Gravitational Le…
Gravitational lensing - the deflection of light rays by gravitating matter - has become a major tool in the armoury of the modern cosmologist. Proposed nearly a hundred years ago as a key feature of Einstein's theory of General Relativity,…
The measurement of the deflection of starlight during a total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 was the first verification of general relativity by an external team of scientists, brought Einstein and his theory to the attention of the general…
In 1919, Eddington and Dyson led two famous expeditions to measure the bending of light during a total solar eclipse. The results of this effort led to the first experimental confirmation of Einstein's General Relativity and contributed to…
A century after observing the deflection of light emitted by distant stars during the solar eclipse of 1919, it is interesting to know the concepts emerged from the experiment and the theoretical and observational consequences for modern…
Deflection of light by gravity was predicted by General Relativity and observationaly confirmed in 1919. In the following decades various aspects of the gravitational lens effect were explored theoretically, among them the possibility of…
On May 29, 1919, at Ro\c{c}a Sundy, Principe island, Eddington confirms Einstein's general relativity theory for the first time by photographing stars behind the obscured Sun during a total eclipse. History was made. At Sobral, Eddington's…
The first direct experimental test of Einstein's theory of general relativity involved a pair of expeditions to measure the bending of light at a total solar eclipse that took place one hundred years ago, on 29 May 1919. So famous is this…
We critically examine the evidence available of the early ideas on the bending of light due to a gravitational attraction, which led to the concept of gravitational lenses, and attempt to present an undistorted historical perspective.…
Albert Einstein postulated the equivalence of energy and mass, developed the theory of special relativity, explained the photoelectric effect, and described Brownian motion in five papers, all published in 1905, 100 years ago. With these…
The theory of General Relativity predicts that, since massive bodies curve spacetime, light from a distant source would be deflected by a foreground massive object -- a phenomenon known as \emph{Gravitational Lensing}. Historically, the…
The potential of the gravitational microlensing inside our Galaxy for testing the Einstein formula for the gravitational light deflection is discussed. For this purpose, the lens mapping is modified by introducing parameter eps, which…
Soon after Einstein's calculation of the effect of the Sun's gravitational field on the propagation of light in 1911, astronomers around the world tried to measure and verify the value. If the first attempts in Brazil in 1912 or Imperial…
In 1936 Einstein predicted the phenomenon presently known as gravitational lensing (GL). A prime feature of GL is the magnification, because of the gravitational field, of the star visible surface as seen from a distant observer. We show…
Einstein became world-famous on 7 November 1919, following press publication of a meeting held in London on 6 November 1919 where the results were announced of two British expeditions led by Eddington, Dyson and Davidson to measure how much…
In this article, we discuss the idea of gravitational lensing, from a systematic, historical and didactic point of view. We show how the basic lensing equation together with the concepts of geometrical optics opens a space of implications…
In 1936, Albert Einstein wrote a brief article where he suggested the possibility that a massive object acted as a lens, amplifying the brightness of a star. As time went by, this phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, has become a…
The success of the first measurement of the light bending by the solar gravitational field is due to the particular stellar field during the Eddington's 1919 total eclipse of the Sun, near the Hyades, giving the opportunity to measure the…
For the celebrations of the 100 years of the observations undertaken by Eddington at the island of Principe and collaborators at Sobral during a total solar eclipse in May 29, 1919, which have confirmed Einstein's theory of general…
The eclipse of the Sun of 1919 was fundamental in the development of physics and earns a high place in the history of science. Several players took part in this adventure. The most important are Einstein, Dyson, Eddington, the Sun, the…
The nature of gravity is fundamental to our understanding of our own solar system, the galaxy and the structure and evolution of the Universe. Einstein's general theory of relativity is the standard model that is used for almost ninety…