3 ms·
Actually, the effect described here (if I am not mistaken), was already observed in the orbit of Mercury before the theory of Einstein explained it. See: https:
by fjfaase 7y ago
Actually, the effect described here (if I am not mistaken), was already observed in the orbit of Mercury before the theory of Einstein explained it. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity#Perihelion_precession_of_Mercury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity#Pe...
- goodcanadian 7y agoYes, in many respects this is a non event. It is as expected based on what we have previously observed and tested. It is still worth looking at, however, as it would have been very interesting if the result were different.
- Simon_says 7y agoPrecession was also observed in binary pulsars, where the timings are much more accurately measurable. Still nice to get another confirmation in a novel regime.
- imvetri 7y agoGood point. Orbit is an orbit. "Don't just draw a full cycle of orbits to highlight it is some amazing finding"
- evanb 7y agoBecause the gravity is stronger in these cases it's possible that effects not captured by Einstein's theory could be seen, just as Mercury probed stronger fields, falsifying Newton's theory. But Einstein's theory survived this scrutiny.
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoRight, but the situation orbiting a black hole is more extreme than orbiting the Sun, so this is testing the theory more stringently than Mercury did.