Schlamminger Team Recalculates Gravity Constant 0.0235% Lower to 6.67387x10^-11
Updated
Updated · Livescience.com · Jun 6
Schlamminger Team Recalculates Gravity Constant 0.0235% Lower to 6.67387x10^-11
1 articles · Updated · Livescience.com · Jun 6
Summary
An April 2026 replication by Stephan Schlamminger and colleagues put Newton’s gravitational constant at 6.67387x10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^-2, a result 0.0235% below the previous value.
Using 13 tons of mercury, the team still measured a signal only about one-millionth of Earth’s local gravitational field, underscoring why lab estimates of gravity remain so difficult.
More than a dozen measurements since the 1980s have disagreed despite reported error bars that do not overlap, suggesting hidden problems in methods rather than a settled consensus.
Schlamminger grouped the likely causes as physics, engineering and psychology, while outside physicist Christian Rothleitner said measurement technology—not new physics—is the more plausible source of the mismatch.
The constant’s exact value has limited practical impact because scientists already know G times Earth’s mass well enough for applications such as rocket launches, leaving the dispute largely a metrology problem.