In what is sure to be a blow to the anti-relativity-theory folks *, NASA recently ran an experiment designed to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity —specifically the “mass distorts spacetime” part:
Einstein was right again. There is a space-time vortex around Earth, and its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein’s theory of gravity.Researchers confirmed these points at a press conference today at NASA headquarters where they announced the long-awaited results of Gravity Probe B (GP-B).
“The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts,” says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission.
“This is an epic result,” adds Clifford Will of Washington University in St. Louis. An expert in Einstein’s theories, Will chairs an independent panel of the National Research Council set up by NASA in 1998 to monitor and review the results of Gravity Probe B. “One day,” he predicts, “this will be written up in textbooks as one of the classic experiments in the history of physics.”
(Via: Kottke )
*I was being facetious when I said it would be a blow to them. I don’t really think the anti-relativity cranks are going to let this experiment dissuade them from their “ether” theory.
