NASA’s Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. GP-B determined both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing at a single star, IM Pegasi, while in a polar orbit around Earth.(www.nasa.gov/mission)
According to NASA, the Gravity Probe B gyroscopes are the most perfect spheres ever made by humans. If these ping pong-sized balls of fused quartz and silicon were the size of the Earth, the elevation of the entire surface would vary by no more than 12 feet.
Gravity Probe B (GP-B) is a NASA physics mission to experimentally investigate Albert Einstein’s 1916 general theory of relativity — his theory of gravity. GB-B uses four spherical gyroscopes and a telescope, housed in a satellite orbiting 642 km (400 mi) above the Earth, to measure in a new way, and with unprecedented accuracy, two extraordinary effects predicted by the general theory of relativity (the second having never before been directly measured):
1. The geodetic effect — the amount by which the Earth warps the local spacetime in which it resides.
2. The frame-dragging effect — the amount by which the rotating Earth drags its local spacetime around with it.
In this article, my interest is finding the relationships between spacetime and atmospheric medium, as I know that in general relativity Einstein had ignored the atmospheric medium around a massive body in the sky.
Earth’s gravity pulls all the objects in atmosphere toward the Earth, and all the objects follow the rotation of the Earth. In the same way the satellite Gravity Probe B has orbit at the altitude 400 miles (642 km ) above the Earth, remain in orbit at thermosphere/exosphere, and doesn’t escape to space, it’s because Earth’s gravitational force. That is a facts, no doubt about it.
Something logical fallacies if they ignored the effects of Earth’s gravitational force, and then, they try to prove ‘gravity is nothing about force’ according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, in the case of the geodetic effect and the frame-dragging effect.
The above figure shows orbit of Gravity Probe B in the Earth’s atmosphere. Of course, the Earth’s atmosphere is not spacetime. Thus, in this case, it can be seen as a false equivalence — describing a situation of logical and apparent equivalence, when in fact there is none.
"In 2011 a spacecraft known as Gravity Probe B successfully observed this effect due to the Earth.
Despite the challenges, Gravity Probe B confirmed the Earth’s gravitational curvature of space to within 1% of predictions, and confirmed frame dragging to within 19%."(Brian Koberlein)
How could they detect the geodetic effect and the frame-dragging effect in the Earth’s atmosphere, although the Gravity Probe B gyroscopes are the most perfect spheres ever made by humans?
If they think spacetime is the same with atmospheric medium, so they should change Einstein Field Equation of gravitation (EFE). As we know, the meaning of EFE is :
Curvature of spacetime = density and flux of energy and momentum.
This model is highly speculative and can’t answer the question: “How is it possible for a mass to curve spacetime? So, they can change this model become:
Atmospheric medium = density and flux of energy and momentum.
Mile Mathis wrote in his article entitle GRAVITY PROBE B and space-time
“In a nutshell, what the Gravity Probe experiment did is measure the tilt of little gyroscopes.
If the tilt is zero, no curvature of space-time. If the tilt is not zero, we are supposed to have proof of curvature. The gyroscope tilts because space is curved.
The primary problem is that there is absolutely no effort in this experiment to consider, mention, or try to block the main cause of that tilt. It is simply assumed that any non-zero outcome is proof positive of their theory and that any tilt that does not match their needed numbers is only an anomaly or “observation” that can be explained away later. That is horrible science, no matter how you look at it.
Gravity Probe B project that was given a grade of F in a NASA review in 2008 by a group of senior advisors, and denied any further funding since, “the reduction in noise needed to test rigorously for a deviation from general relativity is so large that any effort ultimately detected by this experiment will have to overcome considerable (and in our opinion, well justified) scepticism in the scientific community”. They continue:
“The noisy data meant that GPB could not measure the effects as precisely as astronomers had by firing laser beams at mirrors left of the Moon by the Apollo astronauts.”
Limit of Hubble Space Telescope. An
altitude of Hubble space telescope is about 600 Km; orbits in thermosphere
(ionosphere). Above it at an altitude of 640 - 9600 Km is the outermost layer
of the Earth's atmosphere: the exosphere; and known to be high in temperature
and often changing rapidly. That is limits of Hubble space telescope; the
entire photo was affected by Earth's atmosphere. So, nothing more than
something like optical phenomena.
References:
- Gravity Probe B Excecutive Summary (PDF)
https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/168808main_gp-b_pfar_cvr-pref-execsum.pdf - The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Relativity Mission
https://einstein.stanford.edu/RESOURCES/presentations/tech_reviews/sdarticle.pdf - Brian Koberlein, The Strangest Theory We Know Is True https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/the-strangest-theory-we-know-is-true-73e6364f0cee
- Mile Mathis, GRAVITY PROBE B and space-time
http://milesmathis.com/probe.pdf - Logical Fallacies Of Special And General Theory of Relativity, Second Edition: General Relativity Doesn’t Meet The Principles Of Scientific Method (Amazon, CreateSpace Independently Publisher)
