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Einstein was right: astronomers confirm key theory of relativity
News:
- The astronomers claimed that they had for the first time confirmed a prediction of Albert Einsten’s theory of general relativity by observing the gravitational effects of a supermassive black hole on a star zipping by it.
Important facts:
2. The German-born theoretical Physicist said that large gravitational forces could stretch light, much like the compression and stretching of sound waves.
3. Researchers from the GRAVITY consortium led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics realized that they had a “perfect laboratory” to test Einstein’s theory with the black hole, Sagittarius A*, in the centre of the Milky Way.
4. Black holes are so dense that their gravitational pull can trap even light, and the supermassive Sagittarius A* has mass four million times that of sun, making it the biggest in galaxy.
5. Astronomers followed the S2 star as it recently passed close to the black hole at a speed in excess of 25 million kmper hour.
6. They then calculated its velocity and position using a number of instruments and compared it with predictions made by Einstein that the light would be stretched by the gravity, in an effect called gravitational redshift.
7. Newtonian physics doesn’t allow for a redshift.
8. Researcher’s findings:
- The result are perfectly in line with the theory of general relativity and are a major breakthrough towards better understanding the effects of intense gravitational fields.
- The European Southern Observatory, whose Very Large Telescope in Chile was used to make the observations, had watched S2 pass by Sagittarius A* in 2016.
- The instruments it was using in 2016 were not sensitive enough to detect the gravitational redshift.
9.Astronomers already use another effect predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity — that a black hole can bend passing light.
10.Researchers have used gravitational lensing to peer behind black holes.
