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NASA Gravity Probe Confirms Two Einstein Predictions

Posted by samzenpus on 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."

5 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. I'm tired of Matt Welsh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please, can somebody restore the fortune database? Thanks.
    Uh, and First Post.

    1. Re:I'm tired of Matt Welsh by rhook · · 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.

  2. Re:first comment! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Uh oh.

    Looks like someone didn't account for gravitational time dilation.

  3. NASA and the USA by mustPushCart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am not an American, but I have seen both the blue pearl image and the pale blue dot image. I have read about how long these projects have run and the astounding quality of the instruments that must be on satellites like these along with the massive foresight it must have taken at launch time to make them relevant decades later. You can criticize the USA all you want for their wars, and I have heard some harsh criticism of NASA too but the most astounding images and discoveries have always come from the here because they are on the pinnacle of space exploration. The world would be a lot less interesting if it wasn't for them.

  4. Mission update page is outdated, but by a_hanso · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://einstein.stanford.edu/Media/Simple_Expt_Anima-Flash.html has a simple animation explaining the gravity probe B experiment.