Thread by @syllablehq

This morning I think I realized something pretty cool about #astronomy...

Due to gravitational lensing, as you look past stars, and then past the stars just-almost-behind-them, and keep looking deeper into spacetime...

#Jameswebb #Space #NASA #nerd #amateurScience
1/x 🤓🪐🧵

The string of nearly-aligned stars is not only artificially bent, but the curvature effect should increase as you look deeper - because each curve is exacerbated by the next. It's a "butterfly effect" of a tiny shift that will dramatically affect an object far in spacetime...
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Because each shift affects the last, the net curving of spacetime could actually accelerate (Hmm, is this starting to feel suspiciously like dark matter/dark energy? Surely not. 😉)...

3/x

So, wouldn't this mean that if you keep looking to one side of stars as you zoom (say, the right side each time) you'd be seeing stars/galaxies that are wildly displaced and would appear further than they "really are (were)"?

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And conversely, if you alternated which side of the stars you looked at as you zoom (right, then left, then right) you'd be seeing stars/galaxies that are barely displaced, but would still appear further away than they "really are"? Because the light took a snakey path to us.
5/x

So, assuming that any given deep-space star is (on average) equally positioned (perspective wise) between the stars/mass in front of them (as we view them), wouldn't this create an inverted bell-curve like displacement that might look like well, #darkMatterFilaments? 🤷‍♂️🤔

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Also, shouldn't there be a #RayleighScattering red-shift effect that increases the further back in spacetime we look? (The same effect that causes the blue sky and red sunsets.) I assume that's taken into account and subtracted from dark matter estimations or no?

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Lastly, could we use an #EinsteinRing from gravitational lensing to inspect compounded effects from #RayleighScattering + grav? Because gravitational wells further shift light blue which would briefly weaken RS effect. So what small shift would that give the ring gradient?

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That's all, happy weekend nerds!
🤓🧑‍🚀🌌☄️🪐🌕🌠

Dear experts, is this bullshit? True but insignificant? Would love to hear from ya. Also, did we get a #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope snap of an #EinsteinRing yet? Did I miss it? Can't wait.
Now time to go surfing. 🏄🌞⛱️

9/9

One more:
Wait.. I know we can see a double image of the same star when it's lensed around a single galaxy. But have we done the trick above (look on one side of an arrow of stars), to calculate where the same (but younger!) star can be seen totally displaced in the sky? 🤯

Um.. and this of course means some % of stars (and all radiation, including CMB) are actually from same source but offset in time.. And CMB etc would be brighter than expected. Essentially we're seeing (on avg) a larger surface area of spacetime. Really curious how sig this % is.

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