Though men have observed and recorded thousands of lunar and solar eclipses since the beginning of history, no one has ever reported watching one star—other than the sun—eclipse an other. If any scientists have been awaiting such an event, says University of Pittsburgh Physicist Walter Feibelman, they need be patient for only another 22 years. In 1988, he reports in the current issue of Science, the path of star 40 Eridani-A—only 16 light-years from the solar system—should take it directly between the earth and a remote, as yet unnamed star he calls X, which is at least 1,000 light-years away.
No one can predict with certainty what will occur when 40 Eridani-A moves in front of X, but the distant event will give scientists a rare opportunity to test an equally far-out and still unproven deduction from Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity. Instead of simply blocking the light from a distant star that it is eclipsing, Einstein predicted, the nearer star would create a lens-like effect that would actually intensify the image of the eclipsed star, increasing its brightness perhaps more than 1,000 times. The phenomenon would be caused by the closer star’s strong gravitational field, which would deflect and focus light from the distant star.
Star X is so dim and distant, says Feibelman, that its brightening could probably not be detected by visual or photographic observations through a telescope. But photoelectric measurements could confirm Einstein’s prediction.
Why did Feibelman call attention to the stellar eclipse so long before the fact? “Because of the possibility,” he says, “that I—or the university’s observatory—may not be around in 1988.”
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