Test of General Relativity and Measurement of the Lense-Thirring Effect with Two Earth Satellites
- 27 March 1998
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 279 (5359) , 2100-2103
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.279.5359.2100
Abstract
The Lense-Thirring effect, a tiny perturbation of the orbit of a particle caused by the spin of the attracting body, was accurately measured with the use of the data of two laser-ranged satellites, LAGEOS and LAGEOS II, and the Earth gravitational model EGM-96. The parameter μ, which measures the strength of the Lense-Thirring effect, was found to be 1.1 ± 0.2; general relativity predicts μ ≡ 1. This result represents an accurate test and measurement of one of the fundamental predictions of general relativity, that the spin of a body changes the geometry of the universe by generating space-time curvature.Keywords
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