BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Einstein was right, probe shows

BBC NEWS Science/Nature Einstein was right, probe shows: "...the geodetic effect is similar to the shape of the dip created when the ball is placed on to the rubber sheet. If the bowling ball is then rotated, it will start to drag the rubber sheet around with it. In a similar way, the Earth drags local space and time around with it - ever so slightly - as it rotates.
Over the course of a year, these effects would cause the angle of spin of the gyroscopes to shift by minute amounts.
The mission's principal investigator, Professor Francis Everitt, from Stanford University, discussed preliminary results at the American Physical Society meeting in Jacksonville at the weekend.
The data from Gravity Probe B's gyroscopes clearly confirm Einstein's geodetic effect to a precision of better than 1%.

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William Bencze, Gravity Probe B programme manager at Stanford University in California, said: "Understanding the details of this science data is a bit like an archaeological dig.
"A scientist starts with a bulldozer, follows with a shovel, and then finally uses dental picks and toothbrushes to clear the dust away from the treasure. We are passing out the toothbrushes now." "