Einstein…still as badass in 2018 as he was in 1918. So,...
Einstein…still as badass in 2018 as he was in 1918. So, scientists all over the world have been studying the motion of a star (S2) as its orbit takes it as close as it gets to Sagittarius A* (pronounced “Sagittarius A-star”), a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. Einstein’s theory of general relativity has some things to say about how a star with this orbital path around an object four million times heavier than our sun would behave and what an observer would detect–gravitational redshift and other interesting phenomena. As S2 approached Sagittarius A* it sped up dramatically, exceeding 4300 miles per second, which is almost 3% the speed of light. Yeah, so, it was moving rather quickly. Guess what? We continue to apply Einstein’s theories as new and even wilder cosmic situations arise, and they continue to match what we observe. Precisely. Well played, Albert.
