• ESO Telescope Sees Star Dance Around Supermassive Black Hole, Proves Einstein Right (ESO)

We have one more confirmation that the universe is well described by Einstein’s theory of relativity. For the past several decades, starting with Andrea Ghez, many astronomers have been using massive telescopes and special techniques to directly measure the orbits of stars around our galaxy’s supermassive black hole. Now, a team using ESO’s VLT has revealed that one of these stars is orbiting in a pattern that resembles a spirograph rosette pattern, rather than the mostly repeating ellipse we see with other objects. To be fair, all orbits are rotating a bit through a process called Apsidal Precession, but most orbits don’t require us to make relativistic corrections to Newton’s basic equations of motion for us to match simulation to reality. For the star S2 near our SMBH, relativity, however, is totally required. With 27 years of data on its 16 year orbit, it’s possible to use 330 measurements to track how its orbit changes cycle after cycle…. And… it’s behaving exactly as Einstein would have expected. This is just a nice result of a pretty orbit, that took more than a generation of astronomers, and billions of dollars of instrumentation. When it comes to the universe, sometimes the things that seem the easiest – measuring a star orbit – can be ridiculously hard. But… it sure is worth it when everything comes together in the end. 

Studying the effects of relativity is one of those things that is often easier said than done. More than 100 years after his publications, we’re still working to observe in the universe everything Einstein predicted in his research.