Gravity Explained by Triple Star System
- 11 years ago
Theories and laws in physics can be hard to understand, but astronomers have found a triple star system that might be able to help them uncover how the force of gravity really works.
Theories and laws in physics can be hard to understand, but astronomers have found a triple star system that might be able to help them uncover how the force of gravity really works.
Astronomers observed the triple star system that is 42 hundred light years away from Earth using the Green Bank Telescope.
Scott Ransom of the United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia said: “This triple system gives us a natural cosmic laboratory far better than anything found before for learning exactly how such three-body systems work, and potentially for detecting problems with general relativity that physicists expect to see under extreme conditions.”
The system is made up of a white dwarf star in close orbit with a superdense neutron star called a pulsar, and together they are in orbit with another, more-distant white dwarf star.
Einstein’s equivalence principle says that objects are affected the same way by gravity, regardless of their nature or internal structure.
For example, two balls of the same size and shape, but different weight will fall at the same speed.
The triple star system is being observed and analyzed for data that might refute Einstein’s theory.
Theories and laws in physics can be hard to understand, but astronomers have found a triple star system that might be able to help them uncover how the force of gravity really works.
Astronomers observed the triple star system that is 42 hundred light years away from Earth using the Green Bank Telescope.
Scott Ransom of the United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia said: “This triple system gives us a natural cosmic laboratory far better than anything found before for learning exactly how such three-body systems work, and potentially for detecting problems with general relativity that physicists expect to see under extreme conditions.”
The system is made up of a white dwarf star in close orbit with a superdense neutron star called a pulsar, and together they are in orbit with another, more-distant white dwarf star.
Einstein’s equivalence principle says that objects are affected the same way by gravity, regardless of their nature or internal structure.
For example, two balls of the same size and shape, but different weight will fall at the same speed.
The triple star system is being observed and analyzed for data that might refute Einstein’s theory.