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Scientific American

July 1, 1988

1 min read

Gravitational Lenses

These cosmic flukes offer a unique window on the secrets of the universe. Systematic searches now under way are designed to realize the scientific promise of the objects

By Edwin L. Turner

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Edwin L. Turner is a professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, an affiliate scientist at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo, a visiting member in the Program in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a co-founding Board of Directors member of YHouse, Inc. He has experienced total solar eclipses in 1970 on an island off the Massachusetts coast, in 2006 in the Egyptian desert, and in 2009 from a cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean--but missed one due to clouds in 1999 in southern Germany. He hopes to view the 21 August 2017 eclipse from a location near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

More by Edwin L. Turner
Scientific American Magazine Vol 259 Issue 1This article was originally published with the title “Gravitational Lenses” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 259 No. 1 (), p. 54
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0788-54
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