As of early 2026, Albert Einstein’s General Relativity keeps passing tests from LIGO, James Webb Space Telescope, and Event Horizon Telescope, though it still clashes with Quantum Mechanics

1. The "Perfect" Gravitational Wave: GW250114

On January 29, 2026, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration published a major analysis of a signal detected in early 2025, dubbed GW250114.

• The Test: This is the clearest gravitational wave ever recorded from two merging black holes. Its high quality allowed physicists to perform "black hole spectroscopy."
• The "Bell" Analogy: When black holes merge, the new, larger black hole "rings" like a bell. GR predicts that this ringing should consist of specific "tones" (frequencies).
• The Result: For the first time, scientists clearly measured two distinct tones and constrained a third. All of them matched Einstein’s math perfectly. If they hadn't matched, it would have been the first evidence of "New Physics" beyond General Relativity.

2. The Galactic Center Pulsar (BLPSR)

Astronomers are currently buzzing about a candidate millisecond pulsar discovered very close to Sagittarius A* (the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy).

• Why it matters: Pulsars are the universe’s most precise clocks. If this pulsar’s orbit is confirmed, it will allow for "unprecedented tests" of GR in the most extreme gravitational environment imaginable.
• What to watch for: Scientists want to use it to measure frame-dragging (how the black hole twists spacetime as it spins) with a precision never before possible.

3. "Finsler Gravity": Explaining the Universe without Dark Energy?

A paper published in January 2026 in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics proposes an "extended" version of General Relativity called Finsler Gravity.

• The "Glitch" it fixes: Standard GR requires us to add "Dark Energy" to explain why the universe is expanding faster and faster.
• The New Idea: The researchers found that by slightly generalizing the geometry of spacetime (Finsler geometry), the acceleration of the universe happens naturally without needing to "invent" Dark Energy. It’s an ultra-modern attempt to refine Einstein's work rather than replace it.

4. M87* Magnetic "Flips"

New images from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) recently revealed that the magnetic fields around the famous M87* black hole are much more turbulent than expected.

• The Discovery: Between 2017 and 2021, the polarization pattern (the direction the magnetic fields spiral) actually flipped.
• The GR Connection: While this doesn't disprove General Relativity—the "shadow" of the black hole remained the exact size Einstein predicted—it shows that the plasma governed by GR and magnetism is far more dynamic than our previous models could handle.