Curve of the universe

 

Continent-wide array of radio telescopes measures precise curve of the universe.

Einstein predicted the bending of the universe - because of gravity - when he published the theory of General Relativity. Now scientists have made extremely precise measurements of that curve using a continent-wide array of radio telescopes.

"Measuring the curvature of space caused by gravity is one of the most sensitive ways to learn how Einstein's theory of General Relativity relates to quantum physics. Uniting gravity theory with quantum theory is a major goal of 21st-Century physics, and these astronomical measurements are a key to understanding the relationship between the two," said Sergei Kopeikin of the University of Missouri.

Kopelin and team used the US National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to measure the bending of starlight as caused by the Sun’s gravitational pull. The continent-wide system of VLBA telescopes runs from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands.

The scientists made their measurements as the Sun passed almost in front of four distant quasars – the faraway galaxies with supermassive black holes at their core. The resulting measured value of the curve (called gamma) was gamma of 0.9998 +/- 0.0003 – close to Einstein’s prediction of 1.0.

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