How Did NASA Prove Einstein's Theory of Relativity

NASA recently released the results of Gravity Probe B, a massive space-time experiment they have been conducting.

NASA researchers have announced the results of their 7 year experiment Gravity Probe B (GP-B). It seems that once again Einstein was correct, and there is indeed a space-time distortion around the earth as he predicted.

According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time and space are actually integrated with each other to form a four-dimensional fabric we call space-time. Objects with large mass such as Earth create depressions in the fabric, similar to placing a heavy object in the middle of a trampoline. Einstein stated that gravity is the motion of objects following the curved lines of that depression.

It doesn’t end there, however. NASA scientists hypothesized that because of Earth’s rotation, that depression would be pulled into a four-dimensional swirl. In 2006 they launched GP-B to test this theory. The experiment required the creation of four nearly perfectly spherical gyroscopes made of quartz and silicon. The spheres are the most perfect ever made by human hands, with a deviation of less than 40 atomic layers. The spinning gyroscopes were placed into orbit with a distant star as their fixed reference point.

If the scientists’ theory was true, the axes of the gyroscopes would drift, by an incredibly small amount - 1/360th of a degree. To reduce any margin of error the scientists had to develop a satellite capable of orbiting Earth and brushing against the outer layers of the atmosphere without disturbing the gyroscopes at all, as well as a way to measure the spin of the gyroscopes without touching them.a

The satellite containing the gyroscopes was put into orbit for a full year of data collection. It then took nearly five years of analysis to gather the results. Funding for the project began in 1963, so this experiment represents a massive 47 year effort by NASA. The results of this experiment will allow scientists to predict how objects will behave around objects like neutron stars, galactic nuclei and black holes.

Many people have been worried about the future of NASA now that the shuttle program has ended. With experiments like this producing incredible results, I think it’s safe to say that NASA will have no trouble at all maintaining its mission of exploration and discovery, even when it’s grounded.