TEST OF GENERAL-RELATIVITY AND MEASUREMENT OF THE LENS-THIRRING EFFECT WITH 2 EARTH SATELLITES

The Lense-Thirring effect, a tiny perturbation of the orbit of a parti cle caused by the spin of the attracting body, was accurately measured with the use of the data of two laser-ranged satellites, LAGEOS and L AGEOS II, and the Earth gravitational model EGM-96. The parameter mu, which measures the strength of the Lense-Thirring effect, was found to be 1.1 +/- 0.2; general relativity predicts mu = 1. This result repre sents an accurate test and measurement of one of the fundamental predi ctions of general relativity, that the spin of a body changes the geom etry of the universe by generating space-time curvature.