Another Confirmation of the Theory of General Relativity with the Collaboration of Iranian Researchers

A recent examination of data from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other telescopes indicates that the orbits of stars around the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy may show effects predicted by the theory of general relativity. This astrophysics research project, conducted in collaboration with Iranian researchers in Germany, has been referred to as another endorsement of Albert Einstein's hypothesis. In an interview with Radio Farda, Marzieh Parsa, the lead author of this research paper, discussed the details of the project. Marzieh Parsa stated that the stars surrounding the black hole at the center of the Milky Way have long been the focus of astronomers, highlighting significant efforts to demonstrate aspects of the theory of general relativity based on the motion of these stars. This Iranian researcher at the University of Cologne in Germany attributes the success of the new study, which has been pursued in collaboration with other scientists including another Iranian researcher, Benafsheh Shahzamani, to the precision of the devices used. Parsa told Radio Farda that their research team, utilizing twenty years of observations of stars around the Milky Way's supermassive black hole and particularly a series of innovative methods, has been able to confirm that the orbits of these stars are influenced by effects addressed in Einstein's theory of relativity. The mass of the central black hole of the Milky Way is approximately four million times that of the sun, exerting an extraordinary gravitational pull. The distance from this black hole at the heart of the Milky Way to Earth is estimated to be 26,000 light-years, with a diameter of 44 million kilometers. Since astronomers cannot directly identify black holes, their existence is primarily inferred from their effects on surrounding stars. In this context, the second gravitational wave from the collision of two black holes has been observed, confirming Einstein's predictions after a century.