The Zwicky Transient Facility finds a supernova split into multiple images by the gravity of a foreground galaxy in a remarkable example of strong gravitational lensing.
In yet another validation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, precise measurements of a star’s light as it orbits the black hole at the center of the Milky Way show the predicted gravitational redshift.
The LIGO and Virgo gravity wave observatories, recently upgraded to improve sensitivity, have detected five black hole and neutron star mergers in a single month.
Detailed analysis of gravitational wave data collected last year indicating the merger of two neutron stars shows the result was a single massive neutron star, not a black hole.
Astronomers tracking a star passing close to the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way have detected relativistic gravitational redshift in light reaching Earth.
In yet another success for Einstein’s theory of general relativity, astronomers studying the motions of a triple star system have again confirmed that objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass or composition.
Putting general relativity to the test, astronomers compared the known gravity of a galaxy with the bending of spacetime needed to produce a spectacular ‘Einstein ring’ and found, once again, that Einstein was correct.
A new analysis of data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and other telescopes suggests that the orbits of stars around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way may show the subtle effects predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity.