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Article: Turn, turn, turn; General relativity.(Testing general relativity)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- April 17, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A new satellite will test Einstein's magnum opus
IT WAS the moment that catapulted Albert Einstein to world fame. In 1919, two teams of British astronomers led by Sir Arthur Eddington journeyed to the southern hemisphere to observe a solar eclipse. Einstein's general theory of relativity, an explanation of how gravity works, predicts that the sun bends light that passes close to its surface a few degrees off-course. That will cause stars in the same part of the sky as the sun to look out of place. Because of the sun's overpowering brightness, such a deviation cannot normally be observed. But with the sun's disc obliterated by the eclipsing moon, Eddington's ...