Timeline of gravitational physics and relativity

The following is a timeline of gravitational physics and general relativity.

Before 1500

* 3rd century BC - Aristarchus of Samos proposes heliocentric model, measures the distance to the Moon and its size

1500s

* 1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus places the Sun at the gravitational center, starting a revolution in science
* 1583 – Galileo Galilei induces the period relationship of a pendulum from observations (according to later biographer).
* 1586 – Simon Stevin demonstrates that two objects of different mass accelerate at the same rate when dropped.
* 1589 – Galileo Galilei describes a hydrostatic balance for measuring specific gravity.
* 1590 – Galileo Galilei formulates modified Aristotelean theory of motion (later retracted) based on density rather than weight of objects.

1600s

* 1602 – Galileo Galilei conducts experiments on pendulum motion.
* 1604 – Galileo Galilei conducts experiments with inclined planes and induces the law of falling objects.
* 1607 – Galileo Galilei derives a mathematical formulation of the law of falling objects based on his earlier experiments.
* 1608 – Galileo Galilei discovers the parabolic arc of projectiles through experiment.
* 1609 – Johannes Kepler describes the motion of planets around the Sun, now known as Kepler's laws of planetary motion.
* 1640 – Ismaël Bullialdus suggests an inverse-square gravitational force law.
* 1665 – Isaac Newton introduces an inverse-square universal law of gravitation uniting terrestrial and celestial theories of motion and uses it to predict the orbit of the Moon and the parabolic arc of projectiles.
* 1684 – Isaac Newton proves that planets moving under an inverse-square force law will obey Kepler's laws
* 1686 – Isaac Newton uses a fixed length pendulum with weights of varying composition to test the weak equivalence principle to 1 part in 1000

1700s

* 1798 – Henry Cavendish measures the force of gravity between two masses, leading to the first accurate value for the gravitational constant

1800s

* 1846 – Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams, studying Uranus' orbit, independently prove that another, farther planet must exist. Neptune was found at the predicted moment and position.
* 1855 – Le Verrier observes a 35 arcsecond per century excess precession of Mercury's orbit and attributes it to another planet, inside Mercury's orbit. The planet was never found. See Vulcan.
* 1876 – William Kingdon Clifford suggests that the motion of matter may be due to changes in the geometry of space
* 1882 – Simon Newcomb observes a 43 arcsecond per century excess precession of Mercury's orbit
* 1887 – Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley in their famous experiment do not detect the ether drift
* 1889 – Loránd Eötvös uses a torsion balance to test the weak equivalence principle to 1 part in one billion
* 1893 – Ernst Mach states Mach's principle; first constructive attack on the idea of Newtonian absolute space
* 1898 – Henri Poincaré states that simultaneity is relative
* 1899 – Hendrik Antoon Lorentz published Lorentz transformations

1900s

* 1902 – Paul Gerber explains the movement of the perihelion of Mercury using finite speed of gravity. His formula, at least approximately, matches the later model from Einstein's general relativity, but Gerber's theory was incorrect.
* 1904 – Henri Poincaré presents the principle of relativity for electromagnetism
* 1905 – Albert Einstein completes his theory of special relativity and states the law of mass-energy conservation: E=mc²
* 1907 – Albert Einstein introduces the principle of equivalence of gravitation and inertia and uses it to predict the gravitational redshift
* 1915 – Albert Einstein completes his theory of general relativity. The new theory explains Mercury's strange motions that baffled Urbain Le Verrier.
* 1915 – Karl Schwarzschild publishes the Schwarzschild metric about a month after Einstein published his general theory of relativity. This was the first solution to the Einstein field equations other than the trivial flat space solution.
* 1916 – Albert Einstein shows that the field equations of general relativity admit wavelike solutions
* 1918 – Josef Lense and Hans Thirring find the gravitomagnetic precession of gyroscopes in the equations of general relativity
* 1919 – Arthur Eddington leads a solar eclipse expedition which claims to detect gravitational deflection of light by the Sun
* 1921 – Theodor Kaluza demonstrates that a five-dimensional version of Einstein's equations unifies gravitation and electromagnetism
* 1937 – Fritz Zwicky states that galaxies could act as gravitational lenses
* 1937 – Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld, and Banesh Hoffmann show that the geodesic equations of general relativity can be deduced from its field equations

1950s

* 1953 – P. C. Vaidya Newtonian time in general relativity, Nature, 171, p260.
* 1956 – John Lighton Synge publishes the first relativity text emphasizing spacetime diagrams and geometrical methods,
* 1957 – Felix A. E. Pirani uses Petrov classification to understand gravitational radiation,
* 1957 – Richard Feynman introduces sticky bead argument,
* 1957 – John Wheeler discusses the breakdown of classical general relativity near singularities and the need for quantum gravity
* 1959 – Pound–Rebka experiment, first precision test of gravitational redshift,
* 1959 – Lluís Bel introduces Bel–Robinson tensor and the Bel decomposition of the Riemann tensor,
* 1959 – Arthur Komar introduces the Komar mass,
* 1959 – Richard Arnowitt, Stanley Deser and Charles W. Misner developed ADM formalism.

1960s

* 1960 – Martin Kruskal and George Szekeres independently introduce the Kruskal–Szekeres coordinates for the Schwarzschild vacuum,
* 1960 – Shapiro effect confirmed,
* 1960 – Thomas Matthews and Allan R. Sandage associate 3C 48 with a point-like optical image, show radio source can be at most 15 light minutes in diameter,
* 1960 – Carl H. Brans and Robert H. Dicke introduce Brans–Dicke theory, the first viable alternative theory with a clear physical motivation,
* 1960 – Ivor M. Robinson and Andrzej Trautman discover the Robinson-Trautman null dust solution
* 1961 – Pascual Jordan and Jürgen Ehlers develop the ''kinematic decomposition'' of a timelike congruence,
* 1960 – Robert Pound and Glen Rebka test the gravitational redshift predicted by the equivalence principle to approximately 1%
* 1962 – Roger Penrose and Ezra T. Newman introduce the Newman–Penrose formalism,
* 1962 – Ehlers and Wolfgang Kundt classify the symmetries of Pp-wave spacetimes,
* 1962: – Joshua Goldberg and Rainer K. Sachs prove the Goldberg–Sachs theorem,
* 1962 – Ehlers introduces Ehlers transformations, a new solution generating method,
* 1962 – Cornelius Lanczos introduces the Lanczos potential for the Weyl tensor,
* 1962 – Richard Arnowitt, Stanley Deser, and Charles W. Misner introduce the ADM reformulation and global hyperbolicity,
* 1962 – Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat on Cauchy problem and global hyperbolicity,
* 1962 – Istvan Ozsvath and Englbert Schücking rediscover the circularly polarized monochromomatic gravitational wave,
* 1962 – Hans Adolph Buchdahl discovers Buchdahl's theorem,
* 1962 – Hermann Bondi introduces Bondi mass,
* 1962 – Robert Dicke, Peter Roll, and R. Krotkov use a torsion fiber balance to test the weak equivalence principle to 2 parts in 100 billion,
* 1962 - Hermann Bondi, M. G. van der Burg, A. W. Metzner, and Rainer K. Sachs introduce the asymptotic symmetry group of asymptotically flat, Lorentzian spacetimes at null (''i.e.'', light-like) infinity.
* 1963 – Roy Kerr discovers the Kerr vacuum solution of Einstein's field equations,
* 1963 – Redshifts of 3C 273 and other quasars show they are very distant; hence very luminous,
* 1963 – Newman, T. Unti and L.A. Tamburino introduce the NUT vacuum solution,
* 1963 – Roger Penrose introduces Penrose diagrams and Penrose limits,
* 1963 – First Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics held in Dallas, 16–18 December,
* 1964 – R. W. Sharp and Misner introduce the Misner–Sharp mass,
* 1964 – M. A. Melvin discovers the Melvin electrovacuum solution (aka the ''Melvin magnetic universe''),
* 1964 – Irwin Shapiro predicts a gravitational time delay of radiation travel as a test of general relativity
* 1965 – Roger Penrose proves first of the singularity theorems,
* 1965 – Newman and others discover the Kerr–Newman electrovacuum solution,
* 1965 – Penrose discovers the structure of the light cones in gravitational plane wave spacetimes,
* 1965 – Kerr and Alfred Schild introduce Kerr-Schild spacetime,
* 1965 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar determines a stability criterion,
* 1965 – Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discover the cosmic microwave background radiation,
* 1965 – Joseph Weber puts the first Weber bar gravitational wave detector into operation
* 1966 – Sachs and Ronald Kantowski discover the Kantowski-Sachs dust solution,
* 1967 – Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish discover pulsars,
* 1967 – Robert H. Boyer and R. W. Lindquist introduce Boyer–Lindquist coordinates for the Kerr vacuum,
* 1967 – Bryce DeWitt publishes on canonical quantum gravity,
* 1967 – Werner Israel proves the no-hair theorem,
* 1967 – Kenneth Nordtvedt develops PPN formalism,
* 1967 – Mendel Sachs publishes factorization of Einstein's field equations,
* 1967 – Hans Stephani discovers the Stephani dust solution,
* 1968 – F. J. Ernst discovers the Ernst equation,
* 1968 – B. Kent Harrison discovers the Harrison transformation, a solution-generating method,
* 1968 – Brandon Carter solves the geodesic equations for Kerr–Newmann electrovacuum,
* 1968 – Hugo D. Wahlquist discovers the Wahlquist fluid,
* 1968 – Irwin Shapiro presents the first detection of the Shapiro delay
* 1968 – Kenneth Nordtvedt studies a possible violation of the weak equivalence principle for self-gravitating bodies and proposes a new test of the weak equivalence principle based on observing the relative motion of the Earth and Moon in the Sun's gravitational field
* 1969 – William B. Bonnor introduces the Bonnor beam,
* 1969 – Joseph Weber reports observation of gravitational waves (a claim now generally discounted),
* 1969 – Penrose proposes the (weak) cosmic censorship hypothesis and the Penrose process,
* 1969 – Stephen W. Hawking proves area theorem for black holes,
* 1969 – Misner introduces the mixmaster universe,

1970s

* 1970 – Frank J. Zerilli derives the Zerilli equation,
* 1970 – Vladimir A. Belinskiǐ, Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov, and Evgeny Lifshitz introduce the BKL conjecture,
* 1970 – Chandrasekhar pushes on to 5/2 post-Newtonian order,
* 1970 – Hawking and Penrose prove trapped surfaces must arise in black holes,
* 1970 – the Kinnersley-Walker photon rocket,
* 1970 – Peter Szekeres introduces colliding plane waves,
* 1971 – Peter C. Aichelburg and Roman U. Sexl introduce the Aichelburg–Sexl ultraboost,
* 1971 – Introduction of the Khan–Penrose vacuum, a simple explicit colliding plane wave spacetime,
* 1971 – Robert H. Gowdy introduces the Gowdy vacuum solutions (cosmological models containing circulating gravitational waves),
* 1971 – Cygnus X-1, the first solid black hole candidate, discovered by Uhuru satellite,
* 1971 – William H. Press discovers black hole ringing by numerical simulation,
* 1971 – Harrison and Estabrook algorithm for solving systems of PDEs,
* 1971 – James W. York introduces conformal method generating initial data for ADM initial value formulation,
* 1971 – Robert Geroch introduces Geroch group and a solution generating method,
* 1972 – Jacob Bekenstein proposes that black holes have a non-decreasing entropy which can be identified with the area,
* 1972 – Carter, Hawking and James M. Bardeen propose the four laws of black hole mechanics,
* 1972 – Sachs introduces optical scalars and proves peeling theorem,
* 1972 – Rainer Weiss proposes concept of interferometric gravitational wave detector,
* 1972 – J. C. Hafele and R. E. Keating perform Hafele–Keating experiment,
* 1972 – Richard H. Price studies gravitational collapse with numerical simulations,
* 1972 – Saul Teukolsky derives the Teukolsky equation,
* 1972 – Yakov B. Zel'dovich predicts the transmutation of electromagnetic and gravitational radiation,
* 1973 – P. C. Vaidya and L. K. Patel introduce the Kerr–Vaidya null dust solution,
* 1973 – Publication by Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne and John A. Wheeler of the treatise '' Gravitation'', the first modern textbook on general relativity,
* 1973 – Publication by Stephen W. Hawking and George Ellis of the monograph ''The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time'',
* 1973 – Geroch introduces the GHP formalism,
* 1974 – Russell Hulse and Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. discover the Hulse–Taylor binary pulsar,
* 1974 – James W. York and Niall Ó Murchadha present the analysis of the initial value formulation and examine the stability of its solutions,
* 1974 – R. O. Hansen introduces Hansen–Geroch multipole moments,
* 1974: – Tullio Regge introduces the Regge calculus,
* 1974 – Hawking discovers Hawking radiation,
* 1975 – Chandrasekhar and Steven Detweiler compute quasinormal modes,
* 1975 – Szekeres and D. A. Szafron discover the Szekeres–Szafron dust solutions,
* 1976 – Penrose introduces Penrose limits (every null geodesic in a Lorentzian spacetime behaves like a plane wave),
* 1976 – Gravity Probe A experiment confirmed slowing the flow of time caused by gravity matching the predicted effects to an accuracy of about 70 parts per million.
* 1976 – Robert Vessot and Martin Levine use a hydrogen maser clock on a Scout D rocket to test the gravitational redshift predicted by the equivalence principle to approximately 0.007%
* 1978 – Penrose introduces the notion of a ''thunderbolt'',
* 1978 – Belinskiǐ and Zakharov show how to solve Einstein's field equations using the inverse scattering transform; the first gravitational solitons,
* 1979 – Richard Schoen and Shing-Tung Yau prove the positive mass theorem.
* 1979 – Dennis Walsh, Robert Carswell, and Ray Weymann discover the gravitationally lensed quasar Q0957+561

1980s

* 1982 – Joseph Taylor and Joel Weisberg show that the rate of energy loss from the binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 agrees with that predicted by the general relativistic quadrupole formula to within 5%

2000s

* 2002 – First data collection of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
* 2005 – The first stable numerical solutions of a binary black hole orbit are calculated independently by three different research groups.
* 2007 – End of Gravity Probe B experiment.
* 2015 – Advanced LIGO reports the first direct detections of gravitational waves ( GW150914 and GW151226).
* 2017 – Advanced LIGO and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope constrain the speed of gravity to 1 part in $10^$ of the speed of light with GW170817.
* 2019 – The Event Horizon Telescope images the shadow of supermassive black hole M87*
* 2022 - The James Webb Space Telescope publishes its first image, showing gravitational lensing by the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster.

See also

* Timeline of black hole physics
* Timeline of special relativity and the speed of light

References

External links

Timeline of relativity and gravitation
(Tomohiro Harada, Department of Physics, Rikkyo University)


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Gravitational physics and relativity