by fastartceetoo » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:17 pm
I'm sure the ring of stars is a coincidence. It would be simple (for astrophysicists) to determine if it is lensing: the spectra of all the stars in the asterism would be identical. I'm sure if any astrophysicist ever thought that lensing was a possibility, a check would have been done long ago, and the caption would have said so.
Also, examples of lensing that I have seen tend to show circumferential smearing of the individual images; these images look sharp.
I'm sure the ring of stars is a coincidence. It would be simple (for astrophysicists) to determine if it is lensing: the spectra of all the stars in the asterism would be identical. I'm sure if any astrophysicist ever thought that lensing was a possibility, a check would have been done long ago, and the caption would have said so.
Also, examples of lensing that I have seen tend to show circumferential smearing of the individual images; these images look sharp.