Gravitational light deflection confirmed (1919 eclipse)
Curvatura de la luz por el Sol (confirmación de la relatividad general)
- Date
- 1919 · confidence high
- Place
- Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Príncipe
- Credited to
- Arthur Eddington; Frank Dyson (theory: Albert Einstein)
- People
- 👤 Arthur Stanley Eddington1882–1944
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The expeditions to Príncipe and Sobral measured the deflection of starlight by the Sun's mass, confirming general relativity. Gravity became the geometry of space-time.
The explanation of Mercury's perihelion (1915) was the first proof; the precision of the 1919 result has been debated and confirmed by re-analyses.
What it led to
- Relativistic cosmology
- Gravitational lensing
- Black holes and gravitational waves