Artist conception - Gravity Probe B in orbit. Image Credit: Stanford

NASA has posted the following regarding the results of one of the longest research programs of it’s history.  The Gravity Probe B, first conceived in 1963, and in polar orbit around the Earth since 2004, has confirmed two key predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Measurements made by the spacecraft have verified two effects of a gravitational body on space-time, the geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates.

NASA’s article provides some explanations how this knowledge will further science research, and more mundane things like global navigation and weather predictions.

Check out the NASA page here.