A science test of perfect simplicity and amazing precision has shown that Einstein was 100% correct about the relativistic effets of Gravity on a physical object.
From Discover Magazine:
Relativity Passes Absolute TestEmphasis mine. I had originally written about this back in April 2004 The website for the project can be found here: Gravity Probe B
Exacting research finds Einstein was exactly right.
According to Albert Einstein�s general theory of relativity, a massive body like Earth should bend the space-time fabric of the universe, causing it to curve and flex like a trampoline supporting a bowling ball.
Nearly three years ago, NASA�s oft-canceled $750 million Gravity Probe B Relativity Mission finally shot into space with one goal�to quantify Einstein�s predictions from Earth�s orbit. Earlier this year, at the meeting of the American Physics Society, principal investigator Francis Everitt delivered the first results: Gravity Probe B has verified Einstein�s theory to within 1 percent.
Four gyroscopes, each the size of a Ping-Pong ball, form the heart of the experiment. The gyroscopes are the most perfectly spherical man-made objects in existence; if inflated to the size of Earth, they would have mountains no more than eight feet high. (Their near-faultless roundness has landed the spheres in the Guinness World Records.) At the beginning of the experiment, the gyroscopes� axes pointed to a distant star; as the spacecraft moved around Earth for nearly a year, the researchers carefully monitored the position of the axes.
Einstein�s theory predicts that the axes should shift by a tiny amount�0.0018 degree�under the influence of Earth�s pull on space-time. After 18 months of data analysis, Everitt and his team measured the axial shift to within 1 percent of Einstein�s prediction. Everitt, a Stanford physicist who has spent more than 40 years on the project, says the results are sweet indeed. �It�s really extraordinary to look at the output and see Einstein looking back, without any calculations or corrections,� he says. �This measurement is unprecedented in any test of general relativity.�
