Two conjectures of Einstein's general relativity are confirmed by experiments.
the Stanford University website in May 5th (Beijing time), the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the School researchers have confirmed two important predictions in Einstein's general relativity, which has been the longest in the history. The space project was put to a stop. Related papers are published online on the website of Physical Review Letters.
the researchers came to the conclusion by analyzing the gravitational detector B (GP-B) satellite data. The gravity detector B uses 4 ultra precision gyroscopes to measure the earth's own mass and the bending and twisting effects of rotation to the time and space of the gyroscope. The first theory of
verification is geodesic effect, also known as geodesic effect. The theory holds that time and space are curved due to the existence of large mass objects such as the earth. Generally speaking, if the space-time structure is imagined as a flat sheet and a big mass of earth is regarded as a bowling ball, the sheets will be sags when "bowling" is placed on the "bed sheet". The second theory that is verified by
is the drag effect of the inertial system, which holds that the rotation of mass objects will drag around the surrounding space-time structure to distort. At this time, the earth and other large mass objects can be imagined as a rubber ball, the space-time structure around the object is regarded as a bowl of thick honey, when the "rubber ball" turns in the "big bowl", it will drive the "honey" in the bowl to move along with the rubber ball.
scientists at Stanford University have created the idea of the two big ideas by making the gravitational probe B in 1959, and many of the technologies needed have not been invented yet. NASA began raising funds for the project in 1963 and began experimentation with gyroscopes. 41 years later, the gravitational detector B, which cost US $700 million, was finally sent to the polar orbit about 640 kilometers from the earth. At the beginning of the detection, the 4 gyroscopes were aligned with a distant star in the direction of a telescope and a telescope on the satellite. According to the theoretical hypothesis, the rotation axis of the gyroscope will be offset by the earth's "short line effect" and "inertial system drag effect" over time. And if things are not as predicted by Einstein, the 4 gyroscopes will always point to the same position on the track. Stanford University is the main contractor of the project, responsible for the design, assembly, task operation and data analysis of scientific instruments.
for more than half a century, the B project of gravitational detector has encountered many setbacks, but also faced many difficulties in terms of technology and funding. Nevertheless, the breakthrough technology progress caused by the project for several decades has been widely used in spacecraft environment disturbances such as aerodynamic drag, magnetic field and temperature change control, and spacecraft positioning. The star tracker and gyroscope used in this task have achieved the highest accuracy in history; the carrier phase and differential GPS positioning technology inspired by the project raised the accuracy of the GPS to the meter level, allowing the aircraft to land without a tower; in addition, the additional technology of the force detector B is still in the NASA's space. The application of the microwave background radiation detection mission was applied to support the "Big Bang Theory". John Mather of the United States, NASA, also won the Nobel prize in physics in 2006, and hundreds of doctoral papers have been produced around the "gravitational probe B".
general relativity is almost challenged every week in a lifetime, but so far, astronomical observations are much more consistent with their predicted values than other competitive theories, and the "challenge" has become more "verifying". When the "gravitational probe B" upgrades the technology to the current extreme, it is seen that the theory is still a choice to explain the large scale structure, and it is a pillar of the big house of modern physics. However, it is now twisted with another pillar quantum theory, or because they are not the end answer to physics.