• Since the third Gaia data release in 2022, wide binary stars with separation greater than several thousand astronomical units have been intensely investigated across the world, to probe the nature of gravity in the low acceleration regime, weaker than about 1 nanometer per second squared.
Article Summaries:
- A recent pilot study demonstrates that a novel three‑dimensional technique can precisely measure the gravitational acceleration between wide binary stars, a key test of gravity at extremely low accelerations. Using data from Gaia’s third release, the method analyzes stars separated by thousands of astronomical units, where the pull falls below ~1 nm s⁻². The results confirm that the technique recovers the expected Newtonian values, offering a new tool to probe potential deviations from standard gravity in the weak‑field regime. This development could help constrain alternative theories such as MOND or dark‑matter models.
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