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WVU astronomers, Green Bank Telescope take part in newest test of Einstein's theory

12/31/2021

A pair of West Virginia University professors and Pocahontas County’s Green Bank Telescope played key roles in a 16-year research project that tested and confirmed Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity with unprecedented precision.

WVU professors Maura McLaughlin and Duncan Lorimer were among a team of scientists from 10 nations conducting the research, led by Dr. Michael Kramer of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany.

Seven radio telescopes at locations around the world were used to observe the dynamics of a double pulsar system 2,400 light years from Earth to conduct some of the most rigorous tests ever of Einstein’s 1915 theory of general relativity.

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