Starship Asterisk*

Think of it this way: have a trampoline (so, this is a 2D example, but that's how you should see it in 3D) and put a basketball on it. You'll see that the ball will form a dip in the fabric of the trampoline. Now take a marble and let it pass the basketball at long distance, you'll see that it does ...

Why there are two images? That has to do with the way the light is bent around the mass. It's not like a normal lens you have in a camera or magnifier on Earth. The lens is somewhat more complicated and hence you get multiple images. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_lensing A second note: ...