Gravitational lensing,artwork. Diagram showing how light rays (yellow line) from a distant object (here,a galaxy,upper left) are bent as they pass through the gravitational field of a star (centre) or other massive object. The light is deflected from its original path (dotted line). This bending of light by a massive object was predicted by Einstein in 1916 in his General theory of Relativity. The light from a distant object can be lensed into a variety of shapes and forms,including arcs,multiple images,or an 'Einstein ring'. The grey grid,dimpled below the star,represents space-time. In Einstein's theory,gravity is the warping of space-time by mass |