Moon measurements might explain away dark energy

The New Scientist ^ | 2/19/05 | Will Knight

[Wiz]

Let's hear the "space ping".

[sourcery]

Perhaps they're drafting the orbituary for Einstenian gravity :-)

[fooman]

You would be interested in this. Did you get our note?

Thank you so much. It was totally unnecessary, but we appreciate what u did tons.

;)

[GSlob]

Could it be that some particularly repulsive types (insert your 'favorite' names here) repel not only most people but even astronomical objects?

[Paleo Conservative]

[solitas]

...mirrors left on the surface by the Apollo 11 astronauts...

Was it only Apollo 11 that left retroreflective arrays? Seems to me you'd need THREE sets of arrays to positively fix the Moon's position - you'd still have rotations around one and two points...

[sourcery]

Great picture of the heaviest particle known to physics: The Moron (it's a bozon.)

[TopDog2]

Let's hear the "space ping".

In space, no one can hear you ping...

[Paleo Conservative]

I think all the Apollo missons that landed on the Moon deployed laser reflectors.

[LeGrande]

Is gravities effect instantaneous?

I think what I am asking is if a gravity sensing instrument points towards the sun is it accurate or is it 15 minutes off (the speed of light).

[djf]

At last, some common sense.

Re-examining the basic theory.

I just about fell over LMAO when I found the basis for the whole "dark matter" theory.

Astrophysicists using new, nore accurate measuring methods, were able to determine galaxies were rotating (faster or slower) than they should according to Einsteinian models.

So rather than questioning their assumptions, they decided to just create out of thin air, 94% of the universe.

Seriously, the ENU (Expansive, non-decelerative universe) theories need close examining. (Sima, Sukenik, Sukenikov)

I could throw my own name in there because in 94 I came up with the same basic equations.

If we had a good idea of either the average thermal content of space, or the amount of the ZPE, we could come up with very accurate ideas about How old, how big, and how much it weighs.

The sad part about ENU is that the expansion will go on forever, no big crunch in the future, and the density will keep dropping.

[onedoug]

Interesting. The 2 Pioneers and 2 Voyagers are also moving slightly faster than expected out of the solar system.

[LibWhacker]

I think you're right about that (though Apollo 11 may have left three corner reflectors, 20 feet apart, say), ito finding position. But here, as I understand it, they're only interested in distance, measured down to milimeter accuracy.

I really love this possibility mentioned in the article: "The accelerated universe can be a window of opportunity for understanding the most fundamental aspects of gravitation . . . " Wow, what's not to love about basic research? (And the Luddites continually carp that NASA didn't even invent Tang, lol!)

[djf]

Folks have argued that the spacecraft velocities are not due to an error in relativity, but are electrostatic effects.

I don't buy it.

[LibWhacker]

Amen! I've never liked dark energy/matter. Too scary! Though the nine thousand dimensions of string theory are just about as bad! ;-)

[sourcery]

Is gravities effect instantaneous?

An excellent question, actually. See The Speed of Gravity - What the Experiments Say

[mikrofon]

Given this new theory, does that mean your name will be dropping faster than formerly expected? ;^)

[djf]

Probably!

;-)

I was surprised when they revised the age estimate, my estimate based on a very rough idea about the average density of the universe was quite close to theirs, ~18.3 billion years.

They have since revised it downward in the 14-15 billion year range.

http://citebase.eprints.org/cgi-bin/citations?id=oai:arXiv.org:gr-qc/0010061

[Wiz]

Have you ever heard about the "space ping list"? Or did you mention it just for humor?