Gravity is the OG of the forces of Nature. Historically it was the first to be discovered and described scientifically, yet it’s the most challenging to study. Even though gravity governs the orbits ...

For the first time in space, scientists have produced a mixture of two quantum gases made of two types of atoms. Accomplished with NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station, ...

At the heart of Einstein’s theory of gravity (general relativity) is the equivalence principle. The equivalence principle says that there is no difference between being stationary and subject to ...

Free falling: Einstein's equivalence principle holds that the motion of freely-falling bodies (whether apples, oranges, or anything else) is independent of their composition. The Cold Atom Laboratory ...

Galileo’s most famous experiment has taken a trip to outer space. The result? Einstein was right yet again. The experiment confirms a tenet of Einstein’s theory of gravity with greater precision than ...

One of the most counter-intuitive notions in physics is that all objects fall at the same rate, regardless of mass, aka the equivalence principle. This was memorably illustrated in 1971 by NASA Apollo ...

Physicists in Germany have used an atomic interferometer to perform the most accurate ever test of the equivalence principle at the level of atoms. Sebastian Fray and colleagues at the Max Planck ...

Scientists from Garching and Tuebingen investigated the equivalence principle for two different rubidium isotopes with an atom interferometer, a quantum mechanical device. They stored a billion ...

In the late 1500s, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei conceived of an experiment that changed a foundation of physics. He mulled — and by some accounts actually tested — what would happen if two ...