Topic
Using relativistic effects in stellar orbits - gravitational redshift, Schwarzschild precession, frame dragging - to bound deviations from Einstein's theory.
Astronomers timing PSR J1856-0039 with China's FAST telescope found the lowest combined mass of any known double neutron star system. The orbit shrinks as general relativity predicts, and formation models now have a lighter pair to account for.
Reality
A team led by Mingsheng Zhan compared the freefall of two rubidium isotopes aboard the China Space Station. The 2.8 x 10^-8 uncertainty they report is the best any quantum test has managed. It is also well short of what macroscopic experiments already do.
Reality
A signal LIGO Hanford and Virgo recorded in October 2024 was loud and lopsided enough to pin down how spin deforms its 19.6-solar-mass object. Rotating boson stars with quartic self-interactions cannot fit it.
Reality
Stefan Gillessen's group pulled S301 out of Very Large Telescope monitoring begun in 2023, and its perihelion of twelve astronomical units sits close enough that frame dragging should register in the orbit after roughly another decade of tracking.
Reality
S301 skims Sagittarius A* at about 8 percent of light speed. That proximity gives the GRAVITY+ team a direct spin measurement inside ten years, instead of decades of indirect modelling.
Perspective Coverage
5 publishersReality