Can We See Our Own Solar System Through Gravity's Mirror?

[Slait]

So gravity bends space, and black holes bend space in a loop. Is it possible for there to be a gravitational field somewhere in space, just strong enough, that it bends the light emitted by our system back to us so we could see ourselves?

 

[ImaLooser]

So gravity bends space, and black holes bend space in a loop. Is it possible for there to be a gravitational field somewhere in space, just strong enough, that it bends the light emitted by our system back to us so we could see ourselves?

A black hole bends light at all angles including 180 degrees, so yes it will send a bit of your light back to you. Said light would be so munged up it would be difficult to extract an image from it though.

There could be a series of less severe gravitational lenses that gradually send an image back to Earth. You might even be able to rig it so that the distortion wasn't extreme.

 

[Chronos]

If you do the math, you will see that bending light in this fashion is highly unrealistic.

 

[Slait]

If you do the math, you will see that bending light in this fashion is highly unrealistic.

What would the math be?

 

[Chronos]

Very few photons would be bent precisely 180 degrees in passing a black hole, as noted by ImaLooser. The resulting image would be incredibly faint.