For those with a genuine interest in the science around this (i.e. not David Levy), just came across this web page with some good info, including a cool animation of the orbits.

http://www.galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/blackhole.html

For those with a genuine interest in the science around this (i.e. not David Levy), just came across this web page with some good info, including a cool animation of the orbits.

http://www.galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/blackhole.html

 

That is cool. Is this the same phenomenon as the perihelion shift of Mercury, or something totally different?

 

That is cool. Is this the same phenomenon as the perihelion shift of Mercury, or something totally different?

 

 

I imagine largely the same, but the multi-body dynamics are probably a lot more complex in this case. (Plus there is always the hope that it might show some unexpected errors in GR...)

 

That is cool. Is this the same phenomenon as the perihelion shift of Mercury, or something totally different?

 

I think the major change in the orbit is basically what we would expect from a GR calc/model rather than a Newtonian.

 

 

 

 

I imagine largely the same, but the multi-body dynamics are probably a lot more complex in this case. (Plus there is always the hope that it might show some unexpected errors in GR...)

 

I know they run those calcs for binaries - I think you need to be able to work out the masses involved both via observation and by orbit (to compare gravitational mass and inertial). But then the fiendish ways experimentalist get around problems occuring light years away regularly baffles me

 

 

I imagine largely the same, but the multi-body dynamics are probably a lot more complex in this case. (Plus there is always the hope that it might show some unexpected errors in GR...)

By my calculations, S14, which should have the largest degree of precession due to GR, shifts by ~0.2 degrees per orbit. This works out to 1910 sec of arc per century, compared to Mercury's 43 sec of arc per century.