Source Plane
Shows background object
Image Plane
Lensed image (what we see in the sky)
Lens Parameters
Center X (arcsec) 0.00
Center Y (arcsec) 0.00
Einstein Radius 1.00
Axis Ratio 0.90
Position Angle (deg) 45
Ready to compute
Real Gravitational Lensing Example
Image via R. Hurt (IPAC/Caltech) / The GraL Collaboration / ESA
Documentation
About This Simulator
This web application is a wrapper around PyAutoLens, a powerful Python package for strong gravitational lens modeling (links below). It uses ray tracing to forward lens model a simple, circular Gaussian into the image plane. Specifically, it:
- Implements a single isothermal elliptical mass profile as the lens
- Uses a simple Gaussian source as the background object
- Performs ray tracing from the image plane back to the source plane
- Visualizes how alignment, mass, and ellipticity affect Einstein ring formation
Limitations
This simulator is designed for only educational purposes, and because I thought it was fun. If you need to model real gravitational lens observations, please use the full PyAutoLens package directly.
Citation
If you use PyAutoLens or insights from this simulator in your research, please cite the appropriate papers. See the PyAutoLens GitHub for citation information.