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Solar System in a Can May Reveal Hidden Dimensions
dylanduck writes "A model solar system, made of tungsten and placed in space, could reveal hidden spatial dimensions and test alternative theories of gravity. If the system's 'planets' moved slightly differently to the way predicted by standard gravity, it would signal the presence of new physical phenomena." From the article: "Once at the Lagrange point, the artificial solar system would be set in motion inside the spacecraft. An 8-centimetre-wide sphere of tungsten would act as an artificial sun, while a smaller test sphere would be launched 10 cm away into an oval-shaped orbit. The miniscule planet would orbit its tungsten sun 3,000 times per year."
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard someone suggest replacing a tungsten weight with uranium, I'd have a buck or so. Uranium (238 anyway) isn't denser than tungsten. Tungsten is the densist material for semi-practical applications. It's more available than iridium or osmium, and far less expensive than platinum, three more dense elements. For a few reasonably obvious reasons, neptunium and plutonium aren't really good alternatives to tungsten if you just want a dense lump of metal.