The proof that light is deflected was gathered 100 years ago today. Ripples in space-time called gravitational waves are produced when stars explode or collide.Light beams curve as they pass through curved space-time.Gravity is a symptom of that distortion and curvature, it’s not a natural innate force.Space is not flat: all objects with mass distort and curve space-time, so the sun changes the geometry of space-time around it.It was a new theory of gravity that fixed a lot of the problems with Newtonian gravity, but scientists are trained to be skeptical. “But Einstein introduced math into the notion of space-time for the first time, and he was able to predict that light beams would curve and that ripples in space-time, called gravitational waves, were produced when stars explode or collide.
The holes in Newtonian gravity had already been punched for a while, and the idea of space-time had also been developed a few decades earlier,” says Macdonald. “A lot of Einstein’s scientific theories were driven by thought experiments about current problems in science. So the curvature of space-time dictates the motion of objects in our Universe, even massless objects like photons or light particles that travel in a straight line through curved space-time.” Remember that last part. “The briefest way to summarize it is that mass curves space-time, which in turn tells mass how to move. “The bowling ball on the trampoline is the image most people are comfortable with: you introduce mass (the bowling ball) to this fabric and it's going to dip down,” she says. The metaphor: a bowling ball on a trampoline Elements of this image furnished by NASA. 3D illustration Sun gravity bends space around it.
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