Testing an Einstein theory in space...

[Krimson Klaw]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/04/0 ... index.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A satellite designed to test two fundamental predictions made by Albert Einstein about the universe is ready for launch, 45 years after it was first proposed, NASA and Stanford University officials said Friday.

Since 1959, Gravity Probe B has overcome a half-dozen attempts at cancellation, countless technical hurdles and several delayed launches. The NASA-funded, university-developed spacecraft is now scheduled to begin its mission following an April 17 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

The unmanned, Earth-orbiting satellite is designed to test two of Einstein's predictions about the nature of space and time, and how the Earth and other bodies warp and twist the fabric that combines the two.

At the spacecraft's heart are four pingpong-sized balls of quartz, the most perfect spheres ever made. To ensure accuracy, the balls must be kept chilled to near absolute zero, in the vacuum of the largest thermos ever flown in space, and isolated from any disturbances in the quietest environment ever produced, said Anne Kinney, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's division of astronomy and physics.

Once in space and set spinning, the orientation of the balls should change -- unless Einstein was wrong.


One of four pingpong-sized balls of quartz which will test Einstein's predictions.
He proposed in 1916 that space and time form a structure that can be curved by the presence of a body, like the Earth, warping it like the dimple created by the heft of bowling ball resting on a soft mattress. That distortion accounts for gravity.

Two years later, others suggested that the rotation of such a mass should drag space-time with it, twisting the structure of the fabric.

If theory holds, the mass and rotation of the Earth, 397 miles below the probe, should throw the alignment of the spinning balls off kilter in subtle but measurable ways.

The warping effect has been measured before. The twisting effect, called frame-dragging, has never been directly detected. Gravity Probe B aims to detect both.

I just find this fascinating and thought I would share. Testing wether or not space and time are constant, and also addressing the ever elusive gravity question. Gravity/mass being able to affect space and time? We'll see! Worm hole travel here we come...

[Adex_Xeda]

You know, it's a hell of a mental task to perceive something removed from a time reference.

To understand this stuff we need to step back from time and look at it from a removed perspective, yet how do you do this when everything you personally experience, even language is tightly interwoven with time references?

[Dregor Thule]

That article is full of errors. For instance, I posses a pair of the most perfect balls ever created... IN MY PANTS!

Seriously tho, that's some cool shit. I just hope they don't tear a rift in our space/time continuum, allowing an infinite number of alternate earths to spill forth, overlapping ours and creating an explosion great enough to eclipse the bigbang from the paradox of an infinite number of objects occupying the same space!

*bleebleweep*

[Kguku]

Sliders!

[Skogen]

That article is full of errors. For instance, I posses a pair of the most perfect balls ever created... IN MY PANTS!

Seriously tho, that's some cool shit. I just hope they don't tear a rift in our space/time continuum, allowing an infinite number of alternate earths to spill forth, overlapping ours and creating an explosion great enough to eclipse the bigbang from the paradox of an infinite number of objects occupying the same space!

*bleebleweep*

...or open the gates to a hellish place, letting loose a legion of demonic beasts upon earth, Doom style!

[Voronwë]

That article is full of errors. For instance, I posses a pair of the most perfect balls ever created... IN MY PANTS!

Seriously tho, that's some cool shit. I just hope they don't tear a rift in our space/time continuum, allowing an infinite number of alternate earths to spill forth, overlapping ours and creating an explosion great enough to eclipse the bigbang from the paradox of an infinite number of objects occupying the same space!

*bleebleweep*

...or open the gates to a hellish place, letting loose a legion of demonic beasts upon earth, Doom style!

those fuckers will be coming to the wrong planet, cause there are a lot of us here who can mow them down by the billiions in our sleep


but yeah, super cool article Krim

[Skogen]

[masteen]

Liberate me ex infernus. Or something.

[Marbus]

That's really cool... AND I think I need to load Doom up... been a long time

[Trias]

That article is full of errors. For instance, I posses a pair of the most perfect balls ever created... IN MY PANTS!

Seriously tho, that's some cool shit. I just hope they don't tear a rift in our space/time continuum, allowing an infinite number of alternate earths to spill forth, overlapping ours and creating an explosion great enough to eclipse the bigbang from the paradox of an infinite number of objects occupying the same space!

*bleebleweep*

haha thanks planetladder