NASA to probe Einstein's relativity theory | Houston Chronicle

[Ediacara]

NASA to probe Einstein's relativity theory
Reuters News Service

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Almost a century after Albert Einstein began writing about relativity, NASA is poised to launch a mission 45 years in the making to put a little known tenet of his general relativity theory to its first test.

The Gravity Probe B satellite is the bland name given to one of the most precise scientific instruments ever built. But the project's $700 million price-tag adds glamour, as does its long history, surviving the Congressional budget ax seven times.

Lift-off of the Boeing Co. Delta 2 rocket carrying the probe is scheduled for Monday at 1:01 p.m. EDT from the rocket range at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

With four near-perfect spheres -- the roundest objects ever made, according to NASA -- the probe will try to show whether the Earth, which is known to warp both time and space with its mass, also twists them like tornado winds as it rotates.

More at the Houston Chronicle

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Wow!

I love Einstein! Have always wanted his theory of relativity to be put to the test. This is absolutley fascinating!

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Actually, both special and general relativity

have been "put to the test" experimentally many times. This is a very important test of general relativity, but the effects already have been observed in astronomical systems like black holes. I am waiting for the results from the first run of the gravity wave detectors (LIGO) in Washington State and Louisiana.

http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/

[TahitiNut]

6. GPSS already has to adjust for time-dilation.

Time passes somewhat more slowly aboard the GPSS satellites and adjustments must be made for military precision in navigation/location by GPSS.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. You are exactly correct

Excellent practical example.

http://www.metaresearch.org/cosmology/gps-relativity.asp

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. Im going to laugh my ass off if he Einstein is wrong...

I'm sorry, but that would just be classic.

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Even when Einstein thinks he was wrong, he turns out to be right

He called his introduction of a term in the General Relativity equations called the cosmological constant one of his "biggest scientific blunders". He introduced it in order to make his model of the Universe static (not expanding), and later found out from work done by Hubble that the Universe is expanding. However, we now think that such a cosmological constant is necessary to explain the acceleration of the expansion of the universe recently discovered using supernova data.

To be fair, Einstein was not always correct. He was wrong about quantum physics for example, even though he made major contributions to it.

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Link to Gravity Probe B's website at Stanford University

http://einstein.stanford.edu/

I hope the launch goes well. This experiment will be a very stringent test of general relativity, especially on the idea of "frame dragging".

[KellyW]

8. Keep a eye on this

There maybe something unexpectied