Is Earth In A Vortex Of Space-Time?
"I certainly hope so."
Posted on 12/06/2005 11:34:47 PM PST by jb6
Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 17, 2005 We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex. Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The tremendous mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.
If Earth were stationary, that would be the end of the story. But Earth is not stationary. Our planet spins, and the spin should twist the dimple, slightly, pulling it around into a 4-dimensional swirl. This is what GP-B went to space to check
The idea behind the experiment is simple:
Put a spinning gyroscope into orbit around the Earth, with the spin axis pointed toward some distant star as a fixed reference point. Free from external forces, the gyroscope's axis should continue pointing at the star--forever. But if space is twisted, the direction of the gyroscope's axis should drift over time. By noting this change in direction relative to the star, the twists of space-time could be measured.
In practice, the experiment is tremendously difficult.
The four gyroscopes in GP-B are the most perfect spheres ever made by humans. These ping pong-sized balls of fused quartz and silicon are 1.5 inches across and never vary from a perfect sphere by more than 40 atomic layers. If the gyroscopes weren't so spherical, their spin axes would wobble even without the effects of relativity.
According to calculations, the twisted space-time around Earth should cause the axes of the gyros to drift merely 0.041 arcseconds over a year. An arcsecond is 1/3600th of a degree. To measure this angle reasonably well, GP-B needed a fantastic precision of 0.0005 arcseconds. It's like measuring the thickness of a sheet of paper held edge-on 100 miles away.
GP-B researchers invented whole new technologies to make this possible. They developed a "drag free" satellite that could brush against the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere without disturbing the gyros. They figured out how to keep Earth's penetrating magnetic field out of the spacecraft. And they concocted a device to measure the spin of a gyro--without touching the gyro.
Pulling off the experiment was an exceptional challenge. A lot of time and money was on the line, but the GP-B scientists appear to have done it.
"There were not any major surprises" in the experiment's performance, says physics professor Francis Everitt, the Principal Investigator for GP-B at Stanford University. Now that data-taking is complete, he says the mood among the GP-B scientists is "a lot of enthusiasm, and a realization also that a lot of grinding hard work is ahead of us."
A careful, thorough analysis of the data is underway. The scientists will do it in three stages, Everitt explains. First, they will look at the data from each day of the year-long experiment, checking for irregularities. Next they'll break the data into roughly month-long chunks, and finally they'll look at the whole year. By doing it this way, the scientists should be able to find any problems that a more simple analysis might miss.
Eventually scientists around the world will scrutinize the data. Says Everitt, "we want our sternest critics to be us."
The stakes are high. If they detect the vortex, precisely as expected, it simply means that Einstein was right, again. But what if they don't? There might be a flaw in Einstein's theory, a tiny discrepancy that heralds a revolution in physics.
First, though, there are a lot of data to analyze. Stay tuned.
Galaxy Song
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
"So the Earth is at the center of the Universe?'No. I am.
The story: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze. The dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline.
My comments: Don't these guys have anything better to do?
First of all, anytime you see the name NASA, you can bet its taxpayer dollars being shot down the old boodoggle black hole, never to be seen again. Hmmmm.. lets see. According to the Professor it took a year to gather the data and another year to analyze. Gee, if we try real hard Professor Everitt, maybe we can stretch the time continuim of this boondoggle for maybe two or three more years. I think your car should be paid off by then.
and what is this statement about the "tremendous mass of Earth" ? Hello ? The Earth, in space terms, is a speck of dust. The mass of the Sun is 333,000 times that of the Earth. I am going to go out on a limb here and state that I think the Sun may have a greater impact on the space/time continuim than our little pea size Earth. Sure, I agree that all objects that contain mass have some net effect including creating its own little vortex, but do we really need coneheads to state the obvious.
Here is an example of how bonehead this project is. If I had a 100 ft diameter trampoline and I threw a tiny little green pea (Earth) onto it, I am sure one could measure the impact through instruments but not visibly. Now if I threw my mother-in-law (the Sun) on the same trampoline, now we are talking impact.
"I certainly hope so."
Worst economy since Hoover, so I suppose anything's possible.
I bet there's a physicist out there who will say, "the speed of light is constant, but it is not consistent."
lol, which is how I'd put it, if I were a physicist.
"What is that picture from?"
Why, from that almost-great-but-just-that-side-of-lameness 60s TV Sci Fi drama THE TIME TUNNEL.
You kids don't know what you missed. And maybe it's better that way.
Loved that show. Remember the episode where Tony(?) wnet back and saved his Dad at Pearl Harbor?
Seriesly, they need to bring back that whole Sci-Fi genre (complete with omnipresent pseudo-computer-cascading-light-panels in the background):
I'm having a favorite "Land of the Giants" flashback moment here.
Vast Tracts of Land!
Can ya zoom in a little tighter? LMAO!
/sarc
I'll wait and see what the Intelligent Design people have to say about the space-time continuum before I believe what I see.
Oooh, true dat.
...The nature of infinity is this: That every thing has its
Own Vortex; and when once a traveller thro Eternity.
Has passd that Vortex, he percieves it roll backward behind
His path, into a globe itself infolding; like a sun: Or like a moon, or like a universe of starry majesty,
[...]
Or like a human form, a friend with whom he livd benevolent.
(William Blake, Milton, pl. 15, 21-27).
Hey, if you're going to mention my name, at least have the decency to ping me (especially if pics of scantily clothed hot babes are involved.)
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