Post by coolplanet on Apr 26, 2013 2:09:40 GMT -5
www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0425/Einstein-s-theory-of-general-relativity-gets-most-extreme-test-yet?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem
Einstein's Theory of General Relativity Gets Most Extreme Test Yet
In their efforts to crack the mysteries of gravity, scientists continue to probe Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The latest test involved a curious binary star system.
By Pete Spotts, Staff writer / April 25, 2013
The most massive neutron star known and its tightly orbiting companion, a wimp of a white-dwarf, have provided one of the most extreme tests yet of Einstein's theory of general relativity.
The theory has again passed with flying colors – for now.
Although the theory has cleared test after test over the past century, researchers keep trying to find its limits. They don't think it's wrong, just incomplete.
The other basic forces of nature – the strong force, which binds particles in an atom's nucleus, the weak force, which governs radioactive decay, and electromagnetism – have found explanations in quantum physics. Gravity is the only force that so far has resisted assimilation.
Many physicists are convinced that resistance is futile and that at some point gravity will yield to a quantum-physics explanation. But that breakdown may only become apparent under the most extreme conditions – conditions no human technology can establish.
So researchers turn to the cosmos for their extremes. And in the binary pair identified as PSR J0348+0432, they've found perhaps the most extreme conditions yet.
The pair is located some 7,000 light-years from Earth. The neutron star is all that remains of a star at least 10 times more massive than the sun that ended its luminous run in an explosion known as a supernova. Astronomers estimate that the neutron star is about 12 miles across. But it is so dense that a thimble full of the matter the explosion left behind would weigh about 1 billion tons.
Full story at link
Einstein's Theory of General Relativity Gets Most Extreme Test Yet
In their efforts to crack the mysteries of gravity, scientists continue to probe Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The latest test involved a curious binary star system.
By Pete Spotts, Staff writer / April 25, 2013
The most massive neutron star known and its tightly orbiting companion, a wimp of a white-dwarf, have provided one of the most extreme tests yet of Einstein's theory of general relativity.
The theory has again passed with flying colors – for now.
Although the theory has cleared test after test over the past century, researchers keep trying to find its limits. They don't think it's wrong, just incomplete.
The other basic forces of nature – the strong force, which binds particles in an atom's nucleus, the weak force, which governs radioactive decay, and electromagnetism – have found explanations in quantum physics. Gravity is the only force that so far has resisted assimilation.
Many physicists are convinced that resistance is futile and that at some point gravity will yield to a quantum-physics explanation. But that breakdown may only become apparent under the most extreme conditions – conditions no human technology can establish.
So researchers turn to the cosmos for their extremes. And in the binary pair identified as PSR J0348+0432, they've found perhaps the most extreme conditions yet.
The pair is located some 7,000 light-years from Earth. The neutron star is all that remains of a star at least 10 times more massive than the sun that ended its luminous run in an explosion known as a supernova. Astronomers estimate that the neutron star is about 12 miles across. But it is so dense that a thimble full of the matter the explosion left behind would weigh about 1 billion tons.
Full story at link
