Einstein Proven Right Again!

Researchers have conducted a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The international team looked to the stars — a pair of extreme stars called pulsars to be precise – through seven radio telescopes across the globe. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy

The theory of general relativity passes a range of precise tests set by pair of extreme stars.

More than 100 years after Albert Einstein presented his theory of gravity, scientists around the world continue their efforts to find flaws in general relativity. The observation of any deviation from General Relativity would constitute a major discovery that would open a window on new physics beyond our current theoretical understanding of the Universe.

The research team’s leader, Michael Kramer from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany, says: “We studied a system of compact stars that is an unrivaled laboratory to test gravity theories in the presence of very strong gravitational fields. To our delight we were able to test a cornerstone of Einstein’s theory, the energy carried by gravitational waves, with a precision that is 25 times better than with the Nobel-Prize winning Hulse-Taylor pulsar, and 1000 times better than currently possible with gravitational wave detectors.” He explains that the observations are not only in agreement with the theory, “but we were also able to see effects that could not be studied before”.

Ingrid Stairs from the University of British Columbia at Vancouver gives an example: “We follow the propagation of radio photons emitted from a cosmic lighthouse, a pulsar, and track their motion in the strong gravitational field of a companion pulsar.

We see for the first time how the light is not only delayed due to a strong curvature of spacetime around the companion, but also that the light is deflected by a small angle of 0.04 degrees that we can detect. Never before has such an experiment been conducted at such a high spacetime curvature.”

Dance of pulsars. Animation of the double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039 A/B and its line of sight from Earth. The system — consisting of two active radio pulsars — is “edge-on” as seen from Earth, which means that the inclination of the orbital plane relative to our line of sight is only about 0.6 degrees.

This cosmic laboratory known as the “Double Pulsar” was discovered by members of the team in 2003. It consists of two radio pulsars which orbit each other in just 147 min with velocities of about 1 million km/h. One pulsar is spinning very fast, about 44 times a second. The companion is young and has a rotation period of 2.8 seconds. It is their motion around each other which can be used as a near perfect gravity laboratory.  READ MORE...

There Is No Beginning or End Just a Present

EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF RELATIVITY

To understand special relativity you must first familiarize yourself with the speed equation: 

speed (s) = distance (d)/time (t)

The speed of light is the same for all observers, and this is known as 

“c” for constant (as in c in E=mc2)

where is E is energy and M is the mass of an object). So the speed of light for any observer is constant regardless of the speed the observer is going. For the speed of light to remain constant, something in the speed equation has to give way, that something is time. It turns out time slows down when you travel faster and faster, nearing the speed of light. What could be 10 minutes for the object could be 20 minutes for the observer. So what’s the future for the fast-moving object could be the past for the slow-moving observer, and vice versa. 

This relativistic effect is called time dilation. So the faster an object travels, the slower the time passes. That’s why moving clocks are slower than stationary ones. For example, observer A is on a slow-moving train called "train A". She measures time using her wristwatch. Observer B, passing train A at high speed, has the exact copy of A’s wristwatch. Yet, from the point of view of A, B’s wristwatch runs more slowly than her own. And this is why Einstein said “time is an illusion”.

According to Merrian-Webster’s definition, spacetime is “a system of one temporal and three spatial coordinates by which any physical object or event can be located”. So if spacetime isn’t constant, then what is? The spacetime interval. The spacetime interval is the spacetime difference between two separate events. The equation:

(Spacetime interval)2 =

 (the distance between two events)2 – (speed of light)2 x (the time between two events)2

Let's reach out to a physics professor for an explanation of what this means...  physicist Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University gives an example: "The Sun is eight light-minutes away – it takes light eight minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth. If the Sun exploded now, it will take me eight minutes to notice. So let's say the Sun explodes, and from my point of view, four minutes elapsed. I still don't know it's exploded, so there's nothing the Sun can do to cause something to happen on the Earth – it's completely disconnected from it for eight minutes".

Can the events of time be reversed?  Let's say I throw a ball and knock you off the chair on which you are standing...  and we all agree that it was the ball hitting you that knocked you off the chair...  now, can those events be reversed in that can you fall off the chair before I throw the ball?  Obviously, the answer is no.

Now...  what if time was not created...  what if it has always been there from the getgo?  If it had no beginning, then it will have no end...  and the resulting concept is that we are always living in the PRESENT...  all as it is.