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Related Concept Videos

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Our everyday observation tells us that all objects close to the Earth naturally tend to fall to the ground. Early philosophers assumed that this downward force was unique to Earth. By the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) put forward the heliocentric theory, which suggested that Earth and other planets orbited the sun, while the Moon orbited the Earth. However, it was Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who linked these two motions together in the 17th century. He reasoned that the force of...
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Sir Isaac Newton established the universality of the law of gravitational attraction based on empirical evidence and inductive reasoning. He published his work in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ("the Principia") on July 5, 1687.
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The early pioneers of microscopy opened a window into the invisible world of microorganisms. In 1830, Joseph Jackson Lister created an essentially modern light microscope. The 20th century saw the development of microscopes that leveraged nonvisible light, such as fluorescence microscopy that uses an ultraviolet light source and electron microscopy that uses short-wavelength electron beams. These advances significantly improved magnification, image resolution, and contrast. By comparison, the...
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Newton's law of gravitation describes the gravitational force between any two point masses. However, for extended spherical objects like the Earth, the Moon, and other planets, the law holds with an assumption that masses of spherical objects are concentrated at their respective centers.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 31, 2025

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
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MICROSCOPE's view at gravitation.

Joel Bergé1

  • 1DPHY, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay, F-92322 Châtillon, France.

Reports on Progress in Physics. Physical Society (Great Britain)
|May 3, 2023
PubMed
Summary

The MICROSCOPE mission precisely tested the weak equivalence principle (WEP), a key aspect of general relativity. It achieved unprecedented accuracy, providing strong constraints on alternative gravity theories.

Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Astronomy
  • Gravitation

Background:

  • The weak equivalence principle (WEP) is fundamental to Einstein's general relativity (GR).
  • Experimental verification of WEP is crucial for testing GR and exploring alternative theories of gravity.
  • Previous WEP tests lacked the precision to significantly challenge GR or constrain alternative models.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the weak equivalence principle (WEP) with unprecedented precision using the MICROSCOPE space mission.
  • To constrain alternative theories of gravitation, particularly scalar-tensor theories.
  • To provide new experimental data for fundamental physics research.

Main Methods:

  • The MICROSCOPE mission utilized a space-based experiment to compare the free fall of two different test masses (titanium and platinum).
Keywords:
equivalence principleexperimental gravitationspace experiments

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  • The experiment achieved a precision of 1 in 1015, significantly improving upon previous WEP tests.
  • Data analysis focused on the Eötvös parameter to quantify any violation of the WEP.

    • Main Results:

    • MICROSCOPE delivered highly precise constraints on the Eötvös parameter for titanium and platinum test masses: η(Ti,Pt) = [-1.5 ± 2.3 (stat) ± 1.5 (syst)] × 10-15.
    • These results represent a two-order-of-magnitude improvement in experimental precision for WEP testing.
    • The findings significantly improved constraints on alternative theories of gravitation.

    Conclusions:

    • The MICROSCOPE mission successfully validated the weak equivalence principle to an unprecedented level of accuracy.
    • The experiment's results place stringent limits on deviations from general relativity and alternative gravitational theories.
    • Future WEP tests will build upon the success and methodologies of the MICROSCOPE mission.