Whose orbit was the first used to test Einstein’s general relativity around a black hole?
Quick Answer
Andrea Ghez led observations of stars orbiting the Milky Way’s central black hole, especially the star S2. Her team used the orbit to test general relativity in a strong-gravity environment.
The Full Story
Andrea Ghez and her collaborators studied the motions of stars near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. By tracking the star S2 as it whipped around the black hole, they tested Einstein’s general relativity under extreme gravitational conditions. Their measurements helped confirm relativistic predictions such as gravitational redshift. Ghez shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work.
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