8 December 2020
Time passes more quickly as we move away from the Earth. This prediction of Einstein has been successfully tested by physicists of laboratory SYRTE (Observatoire de Paris - PSL / CNRS / Sorbonne University/LNE). Published on December 4, 2018 in Physical Review Letters, the results were obtained thanks to the two Galileo satellites accidentally placed in 2014 on an eccentric orbit, and with an accuracy 5 times better than a previous test carried out 40 years ago.
Pacôme Delva, Lecturer at Sorbonne University attached to the Theory and Metrology group at the Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace (SYRTE) laboratory of Paris Observatory, and Sven Herrmann, researcher at the ZARM laboratory at the University of Bremen, in charge of the Experimental Gravitation and Quantum Optics group, are rewarded for this work by being awarded the medal of the Académie de l’Air et de l’Espace for their contribution to the verification of one of the principles of general relativity using atomic clocks.
For more information :
Link to the scientific article