Solar System in a Can May Reveal Hidden Dimensions

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Friday July 7, 2006 @11:45AM from the you-can-get-them-in-cans dept.

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."

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I don't understand by n8d06 · 2006-07-07 11:54 · Score: 1, Redundant

Help me out...wouldn't the mass of the "spaceship" affect the experiment? Could this be reliably accounted for in this type of experiment?
Why L2? by Capt'n+Hector · 2006-07-07 11:58 · Score: 0, Redundant

Though the article didn't say, I'm guessing the reason for an L2 orbit is to minimize solar cosmic rays, using the earth as a shield of sorts. Any other ideas?

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Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Re:What's tungsten? by Shads · 2006-07-07 16:31 · Score: 0, Redundant

Naked wiki link to a wiki link gets +2 funny. Sad. I could write a bot to do the same.

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Shadus