Latest Gravity Probe B Stories

NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) has produced astonishing new confirmation of two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to assess. The satellite's observations show the Earth is very slightly warping time and space, and even pulling them around with it.  The findings validate Einstein's prediction, devised nearly a century ago, that large objects in the universe distort space and time with the force of their gravity,...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount...

NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 4, to discuss the science results and legacy of the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission. The event will be in the NASA Headquarters Webb auditorium at 300 E Street SW in Washington.GP-B is a NASA physics mission designed to measure two key predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. Einstein predicted that space and time are distorted by the presence of massive objects.The experiment used four ultra-precise...

For the past three years a satellite has circled the Earth, collecting data to determine whether two predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity are correct. Today, at the American Physical Society (APS) meeting in Jacksonville, Fla., Professor Francis Everitt, a Stanford University physicist and principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Relativity Mission, a collaboration of Stanford, NASA and Lockheed Martin, will provide the first public peek at data that will...

NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft has gathered all the data physicists need to check a bizarre prediction of Einstein's relativity.NASA -- Is Earth in a vortex of space-time?We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth -- and, possibly, the vortex.Time and space, according to...

NASA -- Almost 90 years after Albert Einstein first postulated his general theory of relativity, scientists have finished collecting data to put it to a new, different kind of experimental test. NASA's Gravity Probe B satellite has been orbiting the Earth for more than 17 months. It used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to generate the data required for this unprecedented test. Fifty weeks worth of data has been downloaded from the spacecraft and relayed to computers in the Mission Operations...

By measuring the shape of space with exquisite precision, NASA's Gravity Probe B aims to confirm Einstein's theory of relativity ... or provide the first evidence against it.Science@NASA -- This year marks the 100th anniversary of a revolution in our notions of space and time. Before 1905, when Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, most people believed that space and time were as Sir Isaac Newton described them back in the 17th century: Space was the fixed, unchanging...

A key prediction of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity has been confirmed by an experiment showing that the Earth's rotation drags the surrounding fabric of space-time along with it. The phenomenon, known as frame-dragging, was one of the last untested predictions of general relativity. A NASA satellite, Gravity Probe B, was launched this year to test the same effect. "Frame-dragging is like what happens if a bowling ball spins in a thick fluid, such as molasses," said...