Face of Nation : Albert Einstein can explain a lot, but maybe not black holes. Scientists believe that within the inky depths of these massive celestial objects, the laws of the universe fold in on themselves, and the elegant model of gravity laid out in Einstein’s general theory of relativity breaks down. They don’t know precisely how or where that happens, but a new study brings them closer to the answer.
The study, to be published Aug. 16 in the journal Science, shows that gravity works just as Einstein predicted even at the very edge of a black hole — in this case Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. But the study is just the opening salvo in a far-ranging effort to find the point where Einstein’s model falls apart. “We now have the technological capacity to test gravitational theories in ways we’ve never been able to before,” study co-author Jessica Lu, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, said. “Einstein’s theory of gravity is definitely in our crosshairs.”
That means we may be closer to the day when Einstein’s relativity is supplanted by some as-yet-undescribed new theory of gravity.“Newton had a great time for a long time with his description [of gravity], and then at some point it was clear that that description was fraying at the edges, and then Einstein offered a more complete version,” said Andrea Ghez, an astrophysicist at UCLA and a co-leader of the new research. “And so today, we’re at that point again where we understand there has to be something that is more comprehensive that allows us to describe gravity in the context of black holes.”
