The effect of massive gravity sources on Astronomical Observations

 People have been looking at the sky for millennia  Worked to understand what they see, what it meant  Understood how that affects what they did  Seasons  Changing day length  Weather patterns  More…  As our understanding progresses, we can better know our place in the universe

 Most objects are very far away  This changes how we can see them, how we can understand what they are  Interpreting what we see is not always straight forward…  Earth as center of universe  Sun as center of universe  Center of universe?...  Universe or multiverse

 We can only detect emitters (except very “local”)  Celestial objects are not always visible from your location on Earth  Local Weather can sometimes interfere  Atmosphere blocks some EM radiations  Obstructions in space (dust clouds, etc.)

 Now, we can “see” much more  Further  Other wavelengths  Better understanding of context  Need to plan what you want to investigate  Understand what information you can collect  Select the technology that allows you to succeed (including cost considerations!)

 Data collected/images formed  Small amounts of data/energy collected  What you “see” not always what you got  Interpretations of data and images (refraction, diffraction, reflection, etc.) and cleaning out noise required  Images altered along their journey to Earth

 Image received  Characteristic pattern  Due to massive gravity of some object (black hole, dark matter, etc.)  Energy waves direction altered (like refraction)  Altered image (like a mirage) does not accurately represent the actual form of the source  Astronomers must “decode” images/data to understand the original form of the source  Predicted by Einstein’s General Relativity, but not Newton’s Universal Gravitation!

Newton’s prediction Einstein’s prediction Apparent position of star Illustration by Kelly Kilts