Submitted by IPv6Guy t3_125z8l8 in askscience
pando93 t1_je76nsa wrote
Definitely, and that is exactly the case in weak gravitational lensing, where the effect is small enough to not significantly distort the image. Also, this is exactly how this effect was first measured by Eddington!
Usually, what would happen is that we first know there is a massive object in the way to a far away galaxy or cluster, and then by doing some (mostly statistical) analysis, would learn about the details of the massive object through its effect on the observed galaxy.
The wiki page has some nice explanations.
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