back to physics..
the whole experiment is basically to study how the presence of a big body (in this case, planet earth) disrupts space and time. its like holding a bedsheet by the corners, tight, and placing a ball in the centre. the sheet then is forced down at the centre due to the mass of the ball, and hence, sort of 'wrap's itself around the ball, well to a certain extent at least. and einstein made some study about this issue back in his time and the space dudes are now trying to get some figures done.
with the modders now coming down en masse on big pictures, and my not having much time to get a small version hosted up on my site.. i'm just posting linkys.
gravity probe B
Explanation: Does gravity have a magnetic counterpart? Spin any electric charge and you get a magnetic field. Spin any mass and, according to Einstein, you should get a very slight effect that acts something like magnetism. This effect is expected to be so small that it is beyond practical experience and even beyond laboratory measurement. Until now. In a bold attempt to directly measure gravitomagnetism, NASA launched last week the smoothest spheres ever manufactured into space to see how they spin. These four spheres, each roughly the size of a ping-pong ball, are the key to the ultra-precise gyroscopes at the core of Gravity Probe B. Will the gyroscopes feel gravitomagnetism and wobble at the rate Einstein would have predicted? Stay tuned. Better understanding space, time, and gravity can have untold long term benefits as well as likely shorter term benefits such as better clocks and global positioning trackers.
some more links:
Gravity Probe Launched 04.20.04
what is gravity probe B?
some more stuff <- not very informative IMHO but what the heck.
EDIT: hopefully the edited title will convince some others to click on this thread
Edited by - kimk on 4/28/2004 9:51:28 AM