Sound Science Bite: June 9. You Go Einstein!

About 100 years ago Einstein's prediction that a light beam traveling by a massive body would be deflected toward the body. This was verified when a total eclipse was occurred and stars near the Sun were observed to be displaced slightly away from the Sun due to the bending of the light rays they produced. Now a similar but much more sensitive measurement has confirmed this effect. A white dwarf star passed almost in front of a much more distant star and the light from the distant star was deflected just as Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted. As a bonus, the measurement gave the mass of the white dwarf, settling a controversy. Some astronmers argued that this white dwarf was unusually low in mass, but this turned out not to be the case.

And that's not all! The LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) has detected yet another merging of two black holes into one by measuring the gravitational waves from the merger. This helps further confirm that black holes and gravitational waves – both predicted by Einstein – exist. So, it's been a two-for for Einstein lately!