NASA Launches Einstein Experiment

ast3r3xast3r3x
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Satellite Launch



I've read about the delay a bit ago, but they finally launched it. Can anyone give a little background insight, or what this matters really? I think it seems interesting, but looking for the relativity ( heh) of it all.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    Parts of Einstein's theory have never been tested. It has been inferred multiple times that heavy masses warp space time (simple example: you can see stars in odd places behind the sun during an eclipse). This satellite is seeking to show that not only is space time warped into a 'well', but it is also 'drug' along by a spinning body. [Edit: Heh, I just read the article that you linked to... I really didn't say much more. Here's a good site (NASA's own) that explains the experiment in more detail. http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsy...gpb-parts.html]



    I'm not exactly sure how the perfectly round gyroscopes (marbles) are going to display this, but the instruments on the satellite are extremely fine tuned. You can measure the angle of a hair a mile away! The marbles are supposedly the roundest objects in the (known) universe next to neutron stars.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    From Bauman's link:



    Quote:

    If we were to enlarge these spheres to the size of the Earth, the highest peak or deepest trough would measure only 8 feet from sea level.



  • Reply 3 of 4
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bauman

    The marbles are supposedly the roundest objects in the (known) universe next to neutron stars.



    That's just cool by itself. I want to touch them. But if I touched them they'd be that much less perfectly round. D'OH!



    Seriously, it's like Ren and Stimpy "Don't touch the red button".



    If someone told me "here, guard these things. No one is to touch them. They are the roundest objects in the (known) universe next to neutron stars" I be freaking all over them in two seconds
  • Reply 4 of 4
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    Anyone for a game of Marbles?



    I looked into it a little more. It looks like it's going to confirm several things:



    "The missing inch" - The orbit is an inch or so shorter than it would be with Euclidean space.



    "The geodesic progression" - Measure the curvature of space time with the gyroscopes. With this effect, the gyroscopes will progress (the axis will turn) in the plane of the orbit some obscenely small amount.



    "Space-Time frame dragging" - Measure the dragging of space time caused by the rotation of earth. With this effect, the gyroscopes will progress perpindicular to the orbit an even smaller amount than the other direction.



    Since the last two are perpindicular to each other, they can be independently measured simultaneously. It will take a years worth of data collection to ensure the data is correct.
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