Scientists Measure Gravity in Attonewtons: One Billionth of a Billionth of a Newton

Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery by measuring gravity on a microscopic scale, paving the way for future studies on gravity within the quantum realm. This significant advancement was achieved by a team from Leiden University in the Netherlands and the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Italy, who developed a technique to detect the gravitational pull between tiny objects.

In their carefully controlled experiment, the team levitated a magnetic particle over a superconductor cooled to nearly absolute zero. They measured the gravitational force exerted on this particle by a rotating brass-weighted electrical bicycle wheel situated about a meter away, demonstrating how gravity acts between the particle and the nearby weights based on their mass and distance.

The experiment revealed a gravitational force of 30 attonewtons (a minuscule unit of force) acting on a particle that was less than a millimeter in size and had a mass of half a milligram.

The significance of this experiment lies in its potential to merge the realms of quantum mechanics and general relativity. For over a hundred years, physicists have sought to reconcile the theory of general relativity, which explains the macroscopic effects of gravity, with quantum theory, which describes the behavior of particles at the subatomic level.

By measuring gravitational forces exerted by smaller and smaller particles, researchers hope to gain insights into how gravity operates at the quantum level. This could unlock answers to some of the universe’s greatest mysteries, such as the origins of the cosmos and the nature of black holes.

Following this successful demonstration, the scientists plan to further explore gravity’s interaction between increasingly smaller particles, a venture that is expected to span the next five to ten years before the initial measurements of quantum gravitational effects can be obtained.