Nasa confirms there is a space-time vortex around Earth

[Tonka]

Source:http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/04may_epic/

NASA Announces Results of Epic Space-Time Experiment

May 4, 2011: Einstein was right again. Nasa confirms there is a space-time vortex around Earth, and its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity.
Researchers confirmed these points at a press conference today at NASA headquarters where they announced the long-awaited results of Gravity Probe B (GP-B).
"The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts," says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission....more from the source

 

[JJackson]

Re: Nasa confirms there is a space-time vortex around Earth

I have followed the fortunes of this project for more years than I care to admit to but am not qualified to judge the validity of the findings. I had rather given up hope of a definitive answer when NASA pulled the plug on it in 2008 after an internal review gave up hope. This extract is copied from the programs wikipedia page and taken from the NASA review

They warn that the required reduction in noise level (due to classical torques and breaks in data collection due to solar flares) "is so large that any effect ultimately detected by this experiment will have to overcome considerable (and in our opinion, well justified) skepticism in the scientific community".

Stanford continued the data analysis and NASA are now happy to re-adopt the program and laud their analysis without any mention of their previous doubts or abandonment.
I have no way of knowing if the earlier concern was justified or if Stanford have laid all those ghosts to rest. Either way it was an enormously ambitious piece of precision engineering and very well executed.

 

[Emily]

Re: Nasa confirms there is a space-time vortex around Earth

"For readers who are not experts in relativity: Geodetic precession is the amount of wobble caused by the static mass of the Earth (the dimple in spacetime) and the frame dragging effect is the amount of wobble caused by the spin of the Earth (the twist in spacetime). Both values are in precise accord with Einstein's predictions. "

Does anyone know if the 'wobble' described there is the same as what's called 'Chandler wobble?'

 

[JJackson]

Re: Nasa confirms there is a space-time vortex around Earth

Does anyone know if the 'wobble' described there is the same as what's called 'Chandler wobble?'

No relation.

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> The Chandler Wobble – which I had not heard of and just looked up – is a movement between the imaginary spindle on which the earth spins and the solid body due to it not being either perfectly spherical or solid.

The Geodetic precession is the apparent change of direction of a distant object due to the deformation of space-time by a local mass. (see this great clip by Kip Thorne – they spared no expense in the high tech computer graphics in this one).

Frame dragging is a more subtle effect. In Newtonian gravity mass is all that counts but for Einstein if the object is spinning that also matters – a bit. This is a secondary effect overlaid on Kip Thorne’s wobble. For this effect to be significant we would need spinning black holes, or better still a pair of them.

 

[Emily]

Re: Nasa confirms there is a space-time vortex around Earth

Thanks, JJackson. I'd read about the Chandler wobble/precession subject since we have these mysterious 'ETS' seismic events on the Pacific subduction zone roughly every 14 months, and people have wondered if there is some influence on the crust from the Chandler wobble driving that.
(Though looking at the link below, they seem to wonder if great earthquakes influence the wobble.)
http://geophysics.ou.edu/solid_earth/notes/precess/chandler.html

The Geodetic precession is in a realm even less understandable to me, but your response and the video did clarify the distinction. That might be about as far as I can go with that.