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Space
Space
Science
Robert Lea

Does a cosmic 'glitch' in gravity challenge Albert Einstein's greatest theory?

A view of space with lots of specks of light indicating galaxies and a few streaks representing lensed light.

There is no denying the awesome predictive power of Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of gravity, general relativity — yet, the theory still has inconsistencies when it comes to calculating its effect on vast distances. And new research suggests these inconsistencies could be the result of a "cosmic glitch" in gravity itself.

In the 109 years since it was first formulated, general relativity has remained our finest description of gravity on a galactic scale; time and again, experiments have confirmed its accuracy. This theory has also been used to predict aspects of the universe that would later be observationally confirmed. This includes the Big Bang, the existence of black holes, the gravitational lensing of light and tiny ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves.

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