Measurement of gravitomagnetism

Abstract

Gravitomagnetism is a fundamental, weak-field, prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity, is generated by currents of mass and owes its name to its formal analogies with magnetism, generated by currents of electric charge. Then, according to general relativity, Earth's spin should influence the motion of its orbiting satellites. Indeed, we analysed the laser ranging observations of the orbits of the satellites LAGEOS and LAGEOS II and obtained the first direct measurement of the gravitomagnetic orbital perturbation due to the Earth's spin, known as the Lense-Thirring effect.