News Physics

Free-falling atoms in space put a new twist on Galileo’s gravity test

A test on a space station reaffirms a core part of Einstein's general theory of relativity

A rendering of a space station with modules and solar panels

Two clouds of atoms on China’s Tiangong space station (rendering shown) fell with the same acceleration in a new experiment.

Adrian Mann/Stocktrek Image/Alamy

By Emily Conover

An experiment made famous by Galileo has been shrunk down to the atomic level and shipped off to space.

To show that objects of different masses fall at the same rate, the 17th century Italian scientist is said — perhaps apocryphally — to have dropped weights off the Leaning Tower of Pisa.