Posted on 09/14/2022 8:17:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Microscope satellite, a CNES mission with ESA cooperation to test the universality of freefall. The equivalence principle states that all objects should fall freely under gravity at the same rate, independent of their mass and composition, and is the founding principle of General Relativity, Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity. This principle has been tested by experiments on the ground, confirming with an accuracy of 1013 that objects with different characteristics experience the same acceleration from Earth’s gravity. By taking the experiment into space, Microscope will extend the range of measurements to an accuracy of 1015, enabling scientists to make a much more stringent test of General Relativity and possible extensions of this theory. Credit: CNES–D. Ducros, 2016
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MICROSCOPE Mission Presents Most Precise Test of General Relativity’s Weak Equivalence Principle
In new research, a team of scientists demonstrates the most precise test ever of the Weak Equivalence Principle, a key component of the theory of general relativity. A pair of new studies on the research will be published today (September 14) in Physical Review Letters and a special issue of Classical and Quantum Gravity. The report describes the final results from the MICROSCOPE mission, which tested the principle by measuring accelerations of free-falling objects in a satellite orbiting Earth. The team found that the accelerations of pairs of objects differed by no more than about one part in 1015 ruling out any violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle or deviations from the current understanding of general relativity at that level.
“We have new and much better constraints for any future theory, because these theories must not violate the equivalence principle at this level,” says Gilles Métris. He is a scientist at Côte d’Azur Observatory and member of the MICROSCOPE team.
VIDEO AT LINK...................
Published by Albert Einstein in 1915, the theory of general relativity describes how gravity works and relates to time and space. However, it does not account for the observations of quantum phenomena. Therefore, scientists look for deviations from the theory at increasing levels of precision and in various situations. Such violations would indicate new interactions or forces that could unite relativity with quantum physics. Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) is one way to search for potential expansions to general relativity.
Objects in a gravitational field fall in the same way when no other forces are acting on them, even if they have different masses or compositions, according to the WEP. To test the principle, the MICROSCOPE team designed their experiment to measure the Eötvös ratio — which relates the accelerations of two free-falling objects — to an extremely high precision. If the acceleration of one object differs from the other’s by more than about one part in 1015, the experiment would measure it and detect this violation of the WEP.
MICROSCOPE Satellite in Space The MICROSCOPE mission tested the Weak Equivalence Principle by measuring accelerations of free-falling objects in a satellite orbiting Earth. Researchers found that the accelerations of pairs of objects differed by no more than about one part in 10^15, ruling out any violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle or deviations from the current understanding of general relativity at that level. The final results will be published in Physical Review Letters and a special issue of Classical Quantum Gravity on September 14. Credit: (c) CNES 2015
To measure the Eötvös ratio, the researchers monitored the accelerations of platinum and titanium alloy test masses as they orbited Earth in the MICROSCOPE satellite. Electrostatic forces were used by the experimental instrument to keep pairs of test masses in the same position relative to each other and looked for potential differences in these forces, which would indicate differences in the objects’ accelerations.
A significant challenge of the experiment was finding ways to test the instrument on Earth to make sure it would work as designed in space. “The difficulty is that the instrument we launch cannot operate on the ground,” says Manuel Rodrigues, a scientist at the French aerospace lab ONERA and member of the MICROSCOPE team. “So it’s a kind of blind test.”
Once the instrument was ready, it was launched by the team in 2016. They released preliminary results in 2017, but they continued to analyze the data, accounting for glitches and systematic uncertainties, after the mission ended in 2018. They ultimately found no violation of the WEP, setting the most stringent constraints on the principle yet.
MICROSCOPE Mission Graphic
Published in Physical Review Letters and a special issue of Classical Quantum Gravity on September 14, the final results from the MICROSCOPE mission measured accelerations of free-falling objects in a satellite orbiting Earth. The team found that the accelerations of pairs of objects differed by no more than about one part in 1015, ruling out any violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle or deviations from the current understanding of general relativity at that level. Credit: (c) ONERA
The team’s work paves the way for even more precise tests of the WEP with satellite experiments. Their analysis includes ways to improve the experimental setup, like reducing crackles in the satellite’s coating that affected acceleration measurements and replacing wires in the setup with contactless devices. A satellite experiment that implements these upgrades should be able to measure potential violations of the WEP at the level of one part in 1017, the researchers say. But the MICROSCOPE results will likely remain the most precise constraints on the WEP for a while.
“For at least one decade or maybe two, we don’t see any improvement with a space satellite experiment,” Rodrigues says.
References:
14 September 2022, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.121102
14 September 2022, Classical and Quantum Gravity. Issue
Relative Ping........................
Designated Party Pooper is a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. Relativity is a bunch of BS, just like evolution.
I can only hope they can get this tested to a level of certainty that the leftists and their media accomplices insist there is regarding man-made global warming.
You’ve done the experiments?
Maybe I’m missing something, but wasn’t this proven by an experiment done on the Moon back in the day?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo8TaPVsn9Y
Do you use GPS? GPS depends upon Relativity.
I thought this assumption was made well before relativity, going back to Newtonian physics and was based on observations by Galileo. I know it is a much more sensitive measurement and Relativity is the dominant theory right now, but you would think they might mention the long history of the assumption and observation. It is like the stupid writer thinks that all was darkness and ignorance before the 20th century.
Nicola Tesla also claimed relativity was a bunch of BS.
What’s it like living in the 5th century?
“Ron Hatch holds the main patents for GPS.”
No, he does not. Your reading comprehension just sucks. He holds patents related to using GPS but not for the NavStar satellite system itself.
There is a lot to mainstream science that is sorta based on groupthink with limited experimenting. The book by Kuhn regarding the structure of scientific revolutions is enlightening.
We see groupthink all the time...coffee: good/bad,
Carb loading: good/bad, free speech: good/bad, etc...
No, because it's not in any of the physics and Relativity books I had to study. So, honestly, I don't believe it because of all the other things that depend on it.
A simplified model of everything is a very common trap brainy people are strongly attracted to. All models are wrong. A very small number are useful.
The abstract universe of mathematics is a tool, beyond all energy, space, and time, that can be used to create simplified models of the real world, all of which are wrong. Trying to unify wrong models into a super model is to completely misunderstand what this abstract tool can do.
Johannes Kepler's simplified geometric model of the solar system is an example of this extremely common insanity, and a clear indicator of a mathematician jumping the shark.
Tesla was right on a lot of things but also wrong on many things.
To name 3 things off the top of my head he was dead wrong on:
1. Tesla didn’t accept atomic theory and
2. Didn’t think work in atomic energy would amount to anything. (Said that in 1931.) The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would beg to differ!
3. Didn’t think radioactive process were internal to the atom. According to him, the phenomena of radioactivity was not the result of forces within the radioactive substance but by the rays emitted by the Sun. Again, the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would beg to differ as well as anyone who has had a radiation treatment for cancer.
I could name some other examples, but I won’t. His biggest problem was lack of sufficient mathematical training. What he had was much more than Edison. However, Edison had essentially zero mathematical training. Not having that training blinded him from advances in Physics essentially from say the 1930s on. Tesla was a great engineering experimentalist but that’s NOT everything.
Since you’re probably going to think I’m a Tesla hater, I’m not. One of my doctoral advisers was a past president of the Tesla Society. So, I heard a lot and I mean a lot about Tesla!
Love peer-reviewed science...
One part in 1015... Albert rocks!
Same standards used by climatologists to promote "scientific" theories??...
Physical Review & Physical Review Letters... Always good to me...
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