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Home / November 21st, 2009; Vol.176 #11 / Gamma-ray observations shrink known grain size of spacetime / File
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Scientists tested the speed of photons emanating from a cosmic explosion called a gamma-ray burst (illustrated here) and determined that the photons all traveled at essentially the same speed regardless of their energies. The finding upholds Einstein's special relativity theory and rules out some theories of quantum gravity. Credit: NRAO


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  • I don't get it. If the photons arrived 0.9 secs. apart their relative speed difference is small, but isn't it still a violation of special relativity? How do you determine that they started at the same time? Seems spooky.
    Michael Oren Michael Oren
    Nov. 24, 2009 at 2:40pm
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