Scientists who were engaged in checking the equivalence of gravity to all bodies on the MICROSCOPE satellite published the results of their work. According to them, the General Theory of Relativity (Heat affected zone (HAZ)) does not need new refinements.
MICROSCOPE Experiment
According to the general theory of relativity, published by Einstein in 1915, gravity acts on all objects in the Universe with the same force. This is called the equivalence principle. We can’t check this on Earth, because air resistance also acts on all bodies, except gravity.
The astronauts of the Apollo program on the Moon threw a feather and a hammer, visually falling at the same speed. But the theory of relativity requires very precise measurements to confirm it. In order to carry them into orbit in 2016, the MICROSCOPE satellite was launched, capable of measuring the effect of gravity on two different bodies with high accuracy.
MICROSCOPE completed its work in space back in 2017. But the team working with it was in no hurry to publish the final conclusions, comparing them with the results of other studies that lasted 20 years.
General Theory of Relativity does not require clarification
According to the research of MICROSCOPE, the principle of gravity equivalence is carried out with an accuracy of 1 to 1015. That is, the difference in the force acting on two falling bodies cannot exceed this value. This means that no new changes that contradict this fact can be made to the general theory of relativity.
The fact is that the theory created by Einstein is not something that has been proven for 100 percent of what is happening in the Universe. It allows for some clarifications if the picture of the world will be very different from its predictions.
At the same time, the general theory of relativity is incompatible with quantum mechanics, which describes the world of elementary particles. But it is HAZ that accurately describes gravity so far. And if the MICROSCOPE showed differences that contradict it, then it would have to make amendments that would possibly allow the two fundamental scientific theories to be reconciled.
The researchers also suggest that it is possible to launch a satellite that can test the equivalence principle with an accuracy of 1 to 1017, that is, a hundred times better than a MICROSCOPE. But for technical reasons, this will not happen very soon.
According to www.space.com
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