Word.ws English Dictionary

Einstein ring

Einstein ring noun: a ring-shaped gravitational mirage; an image of a distant light source, such as a galaxy, which has been distorted into a ring by a gravitational lens.

einstein ring: a ring-shaped gravitational mirage; an image of a distant light source, such as a galaxy, which has...
Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Einstein ring (plural Einstein rings)

  1. A ring-shaped gravitational mirage; an image of a distant light source, such as a galaxy, which has been distorted into a ring by a gravitational lens.
    • Thus, clusters of galaxies with masses M ∼ 10¹⁵M_⊙ at cosmological distances can result in Einstein rings with angular radii tens of arcseconds.2008, Malcolm Longair, Galaxy Formation, 2nd edition, Springer, page 130
    • The many constraints that the images of Einstein rings provide, allow us to determine the slope of the mass distribution in the lensing galaxy.
      In 1988, the first example of an "Einstein ring" was discovered by Jackie Hewitt [Hew].2012, Arlie O. Petters, Harold Levine, Joachim Wambsganss, Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing, Springer, page 155

Forms of Einstein ring

pluralEinstein rings

Origin of Einstein ring

Named after Albert Einstein, whose theory of general relativity predicted gravitational lensing.

Questions about Einstein ring

What does Einstein ring mean?
Einstein ring means a ring-shaped gravitational mirage; an image of a distant light source, such as a galaxy, which has been distorted into a ring by a gravitational lens.
What part of speech is Einstein ring?
Einstein ring is a noun.
What is the plural of Einstein ring?
The plural of Einstein ring is Einstein rings.

Words near Einstein ring in the dictionary

  1. Einstein field equations
  2. Einstein notation
  3. Einstein radius
  4. Einstein refrigerator
  5. Einstein refrigerators
  6. Einstein ring
  7. Einstein rings
  8. Einstein space
  9. Einstein spaces
  10. Einstein syndrome
  11. Einstein's constant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Einstein ring (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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