Really amazing, we're learning more from the testing, than we learned from 30 years of study! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3093927.stm
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Really amazing, we're learning more from the testing, than we learned from 30 years of study! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3093927.stm
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Ummm...don't that kinda sorta shoot the snot outta Nancy's Mid-Atlantic Rift Gravity Well theory? I mean, what's there looks like it ranges from a weak level to average levels. Looks to be the stronger stuff is off to one side toward Europe...
...'course, there's no Planet X/Nibiru/whaddayacallit to attract to/change rotation/change tilt/change for a buck/whatever...
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I hate to tell you this, but that "stronger stuff" in the red there is just about where the Mid-Atlantic Rift is. :-? Isn't it?Originally Posted by Charlie in Dayton
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Maybe if ya squint a little...I dunno, I'd have to see a more detailed map before I'd bet the rent money on it...
Besides which, The Planetary Bobble'N'Tilt Reverse Orbit Polka ain't on the list of approved Olympic ballroom dancing qualifying events anyway, so who gives a rat's patoot?
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It is an old BBC article from July 2003 so the satelites have now been operating for two years. Grace home page
The BBC article mentions that it is a US and German mission but scientists from Russia, France and Denmark also participated. Each satelite has a star camera developed by a group from the Tecnical University of Denmark which recently received a NASA Group Achievement Award. for their work. The leader of the group John Jørgensen was recently on Danish television to explain what the purpose of the Grace mission was and how it works. He explained it very well but I don't think the blonde interviewer understood much :-? . One of the results he mentioned was that the satelittes are able to measure how groundwater levels changes and how that hopefully can be used to predict how desserts spread in Africa.
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There's a link to a "flat" map with more detail. John is right about the mid-Atlantic ridge. Convergence zones, hotspots, and spreading ridges tend to be higher gravity.
We've learned a lot from the gravity map over the last thirty years. Since it tends to correlate with plate tectonic features, it's helped refine some of our models of the Earth's interior. This latest data is a lot more detailed, but it probably won't improve our models much.
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Move to Ontario and lose weight!
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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The equator. That map is normalized to a fitted ellipsoid, so it doesn't show the "large" difference between the poles and the equator. Not only are there no centrifictional force facelifts at the poles, they're closer to the Earth's center of mass--a double whammy.
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On a more serious note, how much difference would a move to the equator really make? Grams, milligrams, picograms? (And, yes, I know those are units of mass, not weight, but I think you see what I'm asking.)The equator. That map is normalized to a fitted ellipsoid, so it doesn't show the "large" difference between the poles and the equator. Not only are there no centrifictional force facelifts at the poles, they're closer to the Earth's center of mass--a double whammy.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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I haven't calculated it, but a quick google seems to suggest that it's one percent. So, in the kilogram range maybe.
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Fun fact: A "balance scale" (like the famous Toledo "no springs - honest weight" scales) will read the same regardless of how strong, or how weak, a gravitational field you're in. If you stand on a Toledo scale here on Earth, and it reads 150 pounds, it'll read the same 150 "pounds" if you stand on the scale on the moon.
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