Gravitoelectromagnetism

Common card · No. 303361

Gravitoelectromagnetism, abbreviated GEM, is a set of formal analogies between the equations for electromagnetism and relativistic gravitation. More specifically, it is an analogy between Maxwell's field equations and an approximation, valid under certain conditions, to the Einstein field equations for general relativity. Gravitomagnetism is the kinetic effects of gravity, in analogy to the magnetic effects of moving electric charge. The most common version of GEM is valid only far from isolated sources, and for slowly moving test particles. The analogy and equations differing only by some small factors were first published in 1893, before general relativity, by Oliver Heaviside as a separate theory expanding Newton's law of universal gravitation.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Gravity Probe B Team, Stanford, NASA, Public domain