The discussion centers on the concept of superluminal transfer of information via gravity, specifically addressing the implications of gravitational changes traveling at the speed of light. Participants argue that if the sun were to disappear, the gravitational effects felt on Earth would lag by approximately 8 minutes, similar to the delay in light. The conversation highlights the challenges in detecting minute shifts in celestial positions and questions the feasibility of measuring such changes accurately within that timeframe. Experimental evidence regarding the speed of gravity is also sought, emphasizing the need for precise measurements in celestial navigation.
PREREQUISITESAstronomers, physicists, and anyone interested in the fundamental principles of gravity and its effects on celestial mechanics.
In 8 minutes the Earth would be less than 700 meters out of place. Do you really think we could detect that small an error in the star positions in less than 8 minutes? I don't.crapola77 said:star positions, communications satellites breakdowns
Huh? That's just a big load of crapola. The largest stellar parallax we can see is about 3/4 of an arcsec over the course of a year. We certainly wouldn't be able to detect it to as we moved out of position 700m! (That would imply we could measure it on a minute-to-minute basis, as the Earth rotates fast enough for a 700m shift in a minute at moderate latitude.crapola77 said:if one were looking for it yes, it would be a sad indication of mans scientific achevment of we couldn't considering star positions have been one of the strongest underlying themes in all of science reaching as far back the first humans, if we can't predict with a high degree of accuracy the path of the Earth's orbit and when its no longer obeying laws by which we predict its orbit then I suggest the hope for the discovery of a fundamental theory of the universe is far beyond our scope...