# GOCE Satellite Reveals Variable Earth Gravity...



## mosaix (Mar 31, 2011)

Date from the GOCE satellite (launched in 2009), shows how gravity varies across the Earth.

BBC News - Gravity satellite yields 'Potato Earth' view​


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## Vertigo (Mar 31, 2011)

Jeez I thought I was feeling a bit heavy these days - seems like we in the UK are in one of the high gravity areas!

That is one seriously wild globe though!


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## RJM Corbet (Apr 1, 2011)

​ 
Are you saying this satellite has actually _detected_ gravity waves at last?​


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## Interference (Apr 1, 2011)

So that's why I can only leap buildings when I go to Hawaii.


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## Vertigo (Apr 1, 2011)

RJM if you check out the article linked in the OP you will see that they are not detecting gravity waves but merely the force being extered by gravity in different regions.

And hey Interference, I like that idea maybe I'll have to try that sometime!


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## mosaix (Apr 1, 2011)

Vertigo said:


> RJM if you check out the article linked in the OP you will see that they are detecting gravity waves but merely the force being extered by gravity in different regions.



Vertigo, I think that should be 'that they are *not* detecting gravity waves'.

Still time to edit.


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## Vertigo (Apr 1, 2011)

Oops (thanks Mosaix!) I have now corrected it. Honest that was what I meant to type!!!


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## mosaix (Apr 1, 2011)

It's funny, Vertigo but that's the commonest kind of typing mistake I make as well - missing out the 'not' and changing what I wanted to say to the exact opposite. 

*just checking before posting that I haven't said the exact opposite of what I intended*


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## Vertigo (Apr 1, 2011)

I try to always check before hitting the button but sometimes your mind just fills in the blanks for you!


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## Deathpool (Apr 1, 2011)

What they're decting is the ripples in Time, Space. Humans can't perceive more than three dimennsion. Einstien said that space is four dimensions. Gravity is ripples in Time, Space.


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## RJM Corbet (Apr 4, 2011)

Einstein said (in complicated mathematics) that time/space is like a stretched rubber sheet, imagine a trampoline, but not so tightly sprung. Put a marble on the rubber, it makes a depression, use a cannonball, you get a deeper depression, so a heavier body creates more gravity than a lighter one, but in three (or is it four) dimensions -- sorta -- I think. _Brane _theory, I believe, involves maths in ten dimensions ...


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