Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe

Dark energy. Dark matter. These strange and invisible substances don't just sound mysterious: their unexpected appearance in the cosmic census is upending long-held notions about the nature of the Universe. Astronomers have long known that the Universe is expanding, but everything they could see indicated that gravity should be slowing this spread. Instead, it appears that the Universe is accelerating its expansion and that something stronger than gravity--dark energy--is at work. In Einstein's Telescope Evalyn Gates, a University of Chicago astrophysicist, transports us to the edge of contemporary science to explore the revolutionary tool that unlocks the secrets of these little-understood cosmic constituents. Based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravitational lensing, or "Einstein's Telescope," is enabling new discoveries that are taking us toward the next revolution in scientific thinking--one that may change forever our notions of where the Universe came from and where it is going.

Evalyn Gates, a talented astrophysicist, transports readers to the edge of contemporary science to explore the revolutionary tool'"'Einstein"s telescope"that is unlocking the secrets of the Universe. Einstein"s telescope, or gravitational lensing, is so-called for the way gravity causes space to distort and allow massive objects to act like 'lenses,' amplifying and distorting the images of objects behind them. By allowing for the detection of mass where no light is found, scientists can map out the distribution of dark matter and come a step closer to teasing out the effects of dark energy on the Universe'"which may forever upend long-held notions about where the Universe came from and where it is going.