Confirmation of light bending by the Sun (1919 eclipse)
Confirmación de la curvatura de la luz por el Sol (eclipse de 1919)
- Date
- 1919 · confidence high
- Place
- Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Príncipe / Sobral, Brazil
- Credited to
- Arthur Eddington; Frank Dyson; Andrew Crommelin
- People
- 👤 Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin1865–1939👤 Arthur Stanley Eddington1882–1944
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Photographs of stars next to the eclipsed Sun on 29 May 1919 show a deflection of 1.75 arcseconds, the value predicted by Einstein and double the Newtonian one. It confirms general relativity and turns Einstein into a world celebrity.
Eddington's selection of plates has been debated; modern re-analyses (1979) confirm the result. Coordinate with astronomy.
What it led to
- Acceptance of general relativity
- Gravitational lensing as an astronomical tool
- Relativistic cosmology
- Public fame of theoretical physics
Built on
- General relativity1915
- Einstein's prediction (1911, 1915)
- Freundlich's failed expedition (1914)
Made possible
- Precision astrometry (Gaia)
- Dark-matter mapping by gravitational lensing