NASA Gravity Probe Proves Einstein Relativity

By: Bill Waters
05/08/2011 11:04 AM ET

Gravity Probe Einstein – It’s been dubbed as the gravity probe Einstein confirmation. NASA’s probe has confirmed and two key predictions of the general theory of relativity. It only means that Einstein was right about his theory.

The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission was launched in 2004 to study two aspects of Einstein’s theory about gravity: the geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, which describes the amount of space and time a spinning objects pulls with it as it rotates.

“Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey,” Francis Everitt, GP-B principal investigator at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., said in a statement. “As the planet rotates, the honey around it would swirl, and it’s the same with space and time. GP-B confirmed two of the most profound predictions of Einstein’s universe, having far-reaching implications across astrophysics research.” [6 Weird Facts About Gravity]

Gravity Probe B used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the two gravitational hypotheses. The probe confirmed both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing its instruments at a single star called IM Pegasi.

If gravity did not affect space and time, GP-B’s gyroscopes would always point in the same direction while the probe was in polar orbit around Earth. However, the gyroscopes experienced small but measurable changes in the direction of their spin while Earth’s gravity pulled at them, thereby confirming Einstein’s theories.