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Einstein's General Relativity Confirmed!



Black holes have always been an interesting subject of conversation among the space enthusiastic. And if you have been following this blog from the very beginning, you will know that I’ve already written four blogs just about black holes and researches related to black holes. So this is yet another blog about black holes because-there aren’t just enough!

So this blog is about how the latest research on black hole proved Einstein’s general theory of relativity! For the first time, astronomers have confirmed Einstein’s century old theory by observing action near black hole.  Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, an international team of professional sky-gazers watched as a star swung by the super massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and observed the effect the black hole’s extreme gravitational field had on the star’s motion.  By accurately tracing the position and speed of this single star, known as S2, astronomers have detected the signature of Einstein’s gravity in action.

Newton vs Einstein:

Newton’s gravitational theories ruled for 250 years. But a century ago, Einstein’s insights into the nature of speed and time rewrote our gravitational understanding. For the most places in spaces, where gravitation fields are weak, the mathematics of Newton and Einstein yield almost same results.  But as the gravitational strength increases, subtle differences between the two theories emerge.

The Star:

S2 orbiting Super massive Black hole

While the motions of the star at the center of galaxy revealed the presence of black hole, astronomers wondered if they could search for particular signs of Einstein’s gravity by tracking their orbits.  For most of the stars, this isn’t possible as they are far away from black hole. Hence the gravitational field weakens.  Their orbits should therefore agree with both Newton and Einstein.

But one star S2 possessed a tantalizing, highly elliptical orbit, It passes close to black hole every 16 years, at a distance of less than 20 billion km. That's a tiny distance on galactic scales, The star travels at a blistering 7600 km per second, roughly 3% of the speed of light.

So if astronomers can accurately trace the star, where the effects of gravity are should be the strongest, then the difference between the Newton's theory and Einstein's theory will become apparent. 

Until then, astronomers just hope that these measurements will become so precise that it'll will ultimately help to prove general theory of relativity and help us in understanding gravity better. Till then, Einstein's vision of space and time reigns supreme. 
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