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Is the Earth in a Vortex of Space-Time?

Posted by Zonk on from the pinwheel-pinwheel-spin-me-around dept.

da6d writes "Apparently, we'll soon know for sure.... NASA has announced in an article that '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.'" More from the article: "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."

4 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Space by nycheetah · · Score: 5, Funny

    Live long and vortexed?

  2. uhh by flamesrock · · Score: 5, Funny

    "If Earth were stationary, that would be the end of the story. But Earth is not stationary."

    Are you on crack!? The earth is stationary. It is the sun that's moving.

    1. Re:uhh by Belseth · · Score: 5, Funny
      "If Earth were stationary, that would be the end of the story. But Earth is not stationary."

      Are you on crack!? The earth is stationary. It is the sun that's moving.

      It's the fact that it's flat that gives it the illusion of motion.

    2. Re:uhh by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, it's flat because it's stationery, duh!

      No. The Earth is too complex to have just ended up flat with the sun spinning around it. A higher power must have had a guiding hand. So we should instruct kids on the Intelligent Flat Earth Design Theory over the Newtonian-Einstienian theories of gravity, which are after all, completely unprovable.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!