[KaiserJeep]

Just when you least expect it, out of left field comes proof of General Relativity:

A STAR JUST GOT SWALLOWED BY A WARP IN SPACE-TIME

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') star has slipped out of view thanks to the space-time warp it creates as it orbits.

The disappearing star is part of a binary star system called J1906. It's a pulsar, which means it's a rotating neutron star, the result of a massive star collapsing in on itself. Researchers have been studying the young pulsar for five years to determine what kind of companion star was orbiting around it. That is, until recently, when the pulsar vanished.

[Sixstrings]

Well this is interesting.

Can you summarize the physics of it, in lay language?

Just how exactly that works, what is it about the binary pulars that's warping light / radio waves / whatever.

I guess this is not talking about a black hole?

[SeaGypsy]

KJ might be able to put it better, basically Einstein theorised that space time, despite the apparent continuum, is warped by mass, so time flows at varying pace depending on proximity to massive bodies. Assuming the experts have done their homework on this particular region of space, if the body being tracked suddenly vanishes & there is no other explaination, something must explain the disappearance, which Einstein's theory allows for. The star did not explode or get swallowed, it disappeared into its own space time continuum, away from the one we inhabit, but not ceasing to exist. Pretty cool. The theory is related to 'worm holes' or in more sci fi lingo, to portals & Dr Who & the Tardis.

[Tanada]

Gravity lensing has been well known and proven for a long time, if you are looking at a distant light source like a star or galaxy sometimes something massive will pass between it and us. When this happens the light traveling form the object towards us is bent and the position seems to rapidly change in the sky. This effect is also observed when using telescopes to observe stars on the opposite side of our orbit as we go around the sun. Sol's mass is high enough that we actually can observe stars that are near the edge of the suns visible disk that are actually still behind the visible disk as their light is bent around the edge.

[SeaGypsy]

Isn't this different? At least in that they can't see what is causing the warp? Excuse me KJ if I have missed something in your links?

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'I')sn't this different? At least in that they can't see what is causing the warp? Excuse me KJ if I have missed something in your links?

[SeaGypsy]

Cool! Thanks Sub

[KaiserJeep]

Yes, what he said - and the observations constitute the strongest confirmation of General Relativity discovered so far.

This is just a single step in an endless journey. At some point, an observation will be made which General Relativity cannot explain. Then someone else with the intellect of an Einstein will elaborate upon a new theory which may either extend GR or replace part of it. That is the next step. Perhaps there will be some exception to the expected reappearance of this Pulsar and it's companion in approximately 170 years, or perhaps we will find such exceptions in observations of other pulsars. Equally likely is we will find something entirely new - or many entirely new things - as we examine the astronomical data.

The journey has no end, there are no bounds to knowledge.

[davep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', 'T')he journey has no end, there are no bounds to knowledge.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t seems that as the pulsar spins around its companion star, the mass of the companion star makes it sink into a dip in space-time, so that its radio waves can no longer reach Earth.

[dinopello]

I'm no physicist, but didn't Einstein explain the precession of large bodies by way of general relativity and the warping of space-time ? That's what causes the precession, but from there what was said about the pulsar "beam" shifting away from our observable corridor is still what caused the signal to vanish. The way it is written and the people's interpretation makes it sound like the star is actually no longer there because it went into a wormhole or something. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', 'I')'m no physicist, but didn't Einstein explain the precession of large bodies by way of general relativity and the warping of space-time ? That's what causes the precession, but from there what was said about the pulsar "beam" shifting away from our observable corridor is still what caused the signal to vanish. The way it is written and the people's interpretation makes it sound like the star is actually no longer there because it went into a wormhole or something. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong.

[Timo]

I'm not a scientist, but this discovery in no way proves that humans have caused global warming, or that global warming is real, at all!

[KaiserJeep]

Correct, Timo. Nor does it prove that the USSR had JFK assassinated. It only suggests that might be true....

[Timo]

It also doesn't disprove i was Gweneth Paltrow's first true love.

[KaiserJeep]

I don't know how I missed it, but I didn't have a clue about that. Does she snore?

[Timo]

Not when she's sleeping.

[AgentR11]

Gravity Probe B proved this out a few years ago. Everyone already knew Einstein was correct on this subject.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', 'G')ravity Probe B proved this out a few years ago. Everyone already knew Einstein was correct on this subject.

[AgentR11]

that was time.
this is distance/space. you can't get a big enough effect to measure with airplanes and atomic clocks.