• Morton - n is the number of massive objects affecting the light path. The conjecture only applies when n > 1 (read the article). Peter - you're right, and the article actually talks about the ring. Read the text don't just look at pictures
  Russ Black
  
  
• What is n? 5n-5 is the same as 5(n-1). If n is 1 the result is 0. So we get 0 images. Does she mean a single star won't be lensed? As for the ring, I believe it is the lensed result of a multitude of stars,a galaxy. Their images fuse together.
  Morton Nadler
  
  
• PeterThanks for helping us dummies (me and this dumb journalist). Now we know there is at least one person who understands. Isn’t it possible to just make a simple point?
  Russell Hollen
  
  
• The given example is fundamentally flawed since space is not two-dimensional. The star S would not appear as two stars at S1 and S2 but as a single continuous ring around massive object L.
  Peter Sault