The discussion revolves around the implications of the 2017 solar eclipse for the validation of Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR), particularly concerning light bending measurements and the focus of experiments conducted during the event.
Participants express differing views on the relevance of the 2017 eclipse to the validation of GR, with some asserting that it did not contribute new evidence, while others are uncertain about the implications of the findings discussed in various articles.
There are limitations in the discussion regarding the assumptions made about the significance of amateur experiments and the specific focus of the eclipse-related studies, which primarily addressed coronal physics rather than light bending.
Huh? What's the connection?smodak said:Did the 2017 eclipse prove Einstein was right or the jury is still out?
PAllen said:So far as I know, there were no measurements of light bending for this eclipse. GR predictions of light bending have been tested so many times in so many ways there would be no point in doing them again unless someone figured out how to significantly increase precision and got funding for it. The experiments done for this eclipse primarily focused on coronal physics, for which there remain unanswered questions.
These are articles about amateurs taking on the challenge of duplicating a famous experiment. It is really cool that this is just within the grasp of an advanced amateur, but these are not experiments aimed at publishable results (though, I guess, if someone got good enough results, they could get a note published somewhere). These are certainly not serious attempts to extend the evidence for GR.smodak said:I was confused by the NASA (and other) article.
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/testing-general-relativity
https://www.livescience.com/59940-solar-eclipse-einstein-theory-of-general-relativity.html
They talk about amateurs testing GR, but somehow I took that as GR is being re validated