Scientists of the Radioastron project have completed the collection of data to check the gravitational time dilation, Roscosmos reported on Tuesday.
Earlier, the deputy scientific director of the Radioastron project, Yuri Kovalev, reported that Russian scientists would use a clock installed on board the Spektr-R spacecraft to check Einstein's predictions about gravitational time dilation.
“The key scientific program of Radioastron to measure the effect of gravitational redshift has completed the stage of data collection. The purpose of the program is to test the fundamental principle of the general theory of relativity - Einstein's principle of equivalence,”the state corporation said in a statement.
The experiment of "Radioastron" was carried out in a similar way to the American experiment Gravity Probe A, carried out in 1976. The difference lies in the fact that the Russian apparatus was equipped with a more stable hydrogen clock. In addition, "Spectrum-R" is in a highly elliptical orbit, which makes it possible to increase the difference between the maximum and minimum amplitude of the effect. In addition, the accuracy of measurements is added by the repetitiveness of the experiments.
Due to this, Russian scientists hope to increase the measurement accuracy by an order of magnitude.
The Radioastron project is a 10-meter space radio telescope, a unique orbital astrophysical observatory Spektr-R, which, together with terrestrial radio telescopes, forms a single radio interferometer with an ultra-large base. The observatory is intended for fundamental astrophysical research in the radio range of the electromagnetic spectrum. "Radioastron" realizes a record angular resolution in astronomy, determined by the distance between telescopes up to 350 thousand kilometers.