But Gravity Probe B, fitted with an exquisitely accurate telescope and a set of ultrasensitive gyroscopes in a huge vacuum flask 10 times emptier than the empty space around it, is heading into orbit 400 miles above Earth to put it to the test. This proposition has stood for almost nine decades. A colossal black hole would massively distort spacetime around it, and even a small planet like Earth should "drag" the structure of spacetime very slightly as it rotates. This is that planets and stars not only curve the structure of spacetime, they must also twist it as they spin on their axes. It has the most precise launch window of any spacecraft: just one second at 6.01pm BST on April 19.Īnd it has the most historic challenge: it will try to test some predictions made in 1916 by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. It will make the most sensitive observations so far attempted in space, the equivalent to measuring the thickness of a human hair from 440 yards.
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