One hundred years ago this month, Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity (GR), one of the most important scientific achievements in the last century. A key result of Einstein’s theory is that matter warps space-time, and thus a massive object can cause an observable bending of light from a background object. The first success of the theory was the observation, during a solar eclipse, that light from a distant background star was deflected by the predicted amount as it passed near the sun. When Einstein developed the general theory of relativity, he was trying to improve our understanding of how the universe works. At the time, Newtonian gravity was more than sufficient for any practical gravity calculations. However, as often happens in physics, general relativity has applications that would not have been foreseen by Einstein or his contemporaries. Credit: NASA #space #eclipse #blackandwhite #space #science #spacephotography #solarsystem #theory #relativity #ein...