NASA Gravity Probe Confirms Two Einstein Predictions

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 4, 2011 @08:37PM from the I-hope-it-feels-so-good-to-be-right dept.

sanzibar writes "After 52 years of conceiving, testing and waiting, marked by scientific advances and disappointments, one of Stanford's and NASA's longest-running projects comes to a close with a greater understanding of the universe. Stanford and NASA researchers have confirmed two predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, concluding one of the space agency's longest-running projects. Known as Gravity Probe B, the experiment used four ultra-precise gyroscopes housed in a satellite to measure two aspects of Einstein's theory about gravity. The first is the geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a gravitational body. The second is frame-dragging, which is the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates."

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Mission update page is outdated, but by a_hanso · 2011-05-04 21:53 · Score: 5, Informative

http://einstein.stanford.edu/Media/Simple_Expt_Anima-Flash.html has a simple animation explaining the gravity probe B experiment.
Re:I'm tired of Matt Welsh by rhook · 2011-05-04 22:16 · Score: 5, Informative

The new Slashdot: too buggy to be fit for purpose.
I have to agree with this, several bugs. The most annoying one is having the comments scroll to the top of the page when I click anything.