Albert Einstein :was right

Gravity Probe B of the U.S. space agency, NASA, produced a striking confirmation of some of the fundamental predictions of Albert Einstein.

Launched in 2004, the experiment was intended to test two of Einstein's theories about the nature of space and time, and how the Earth distorts them.

The satellite observations showed the huge body of the Earth very subtle twisting of space and time, and even pulling them toward him.

Scientists were able to see these effects by studying the behavior of four quartz spheres the size of ping pong balls perfectly designed to be transported within the probe.

The results were published in Physical Review Letters.

Mission 1959
The model shows how space and time form a structure that would curve in the presence of a body like the planets.

The idea of ​​the mission was first proposed in 1959, but the project had to wait until the technologies needed to carry it out were invented.

Francis Everitt, principal investigator for the mission of the University of Stanford, who was there at the beginning of the idea of ​​Gravity Probe B (GP-B) in the late 1950's said: "We have completed this experiment without above, proving the universe of Einstein and Einstein survives. "

GP-B was not released until 2004, and since then the mission team evaluates the data and to make sure their comments.

Some of the difficulties the group have been showing some actual measurements were incredibly small and were not biased by flaws introduced into the experimental setup. For a while, it appeared that the experiment would not succeed.

In the space
Known as the geodetic effect, this is the amount by which the mass of the Earth distorts space-time dimension.

The other, known to physicists as frame-dragging or warping effect is the phenomenon by which the Earth rotates with the space-time around itself as it rotates.

GP-B tried to observe these two effects by measuring small deviations in the axis of the four gyroscopes in relation to the position of a star called IM Pegasi (HR 8703).

To ensure accuracy, the balls had to be cooled to nearly "absolute zero" (-273C) and were carried in a thermos containing giant super fluid helium. This and other measures isolated areas of external shocks.

If Einstein was wrong in its ideas, the gyroscopes would have turned unhindered by external forces (pressure, heat, magnetic field, gravity and electrical charges).

But since the physical taught us that space and time are distorted by the presence of the Earth, the deviation should be measurable, although with great difficulty.

In the course of a year, the expected rotation of the axes of the balls for the geodetic effect was calculated and found to be in the range of a few thousand milliseconds of arc. The warping effect is expected to be even lower.

"A millisecond of arc is the width of a human hair seen at a distance of 16 km. It really is a fairly small angle, and this is precisely the Gravity Probe B had to do, "said Professor Everitt.

"For the geodetic effect, the effect of relativity by Einstein in 6606.1 of these millisecond of arc, and the result of the move was a little over one quarter of one percent of that. The frame-dragging we measured was just over 20%. "

"Physicists never stop testing their basic theories, either to confirm good or reveal new physics beyond the standard theories."

"In some cases, the only place to do this to conduct such experiments, it is in space. This was the case of GP-B ".