On 20nd July,09 A crew of Chinese scientists is planning to conduct an experiment on July 22, for the first time to test how much the controversial theory that gravity drops slightly during a total eclipse is true.
It will take many more months before the final decisionto be made , but scientists are already studying the latest data. The last solar eclipse of the millennium served as a great opportunity to test a phenomenon found by Maurice Allais in 1954. Allais believed that a solar eclipse can affect Earth’s gravity.
The scientists in charge of the experiment have received most of the data. Pendulums were set up in many countries, with some in the path of the eclipse and others not. Some of the early results are interesting. Pendulums typically swing back and forth as a result of gravity and the rotation of the Earth.
Video cameras taped the pendulum movements before, during and after the solar eclipse. Although no change was viewed in the pendulums outside of the eclipse path, two different sites in Europe revealed exciting results. These researchers, which were inside the path of the eclipse, discovered a change in the pendulum’s path. If the results are correct, then another mystery was just created. Why would gravity change only in the areas under the eclipse’ path?
The results were taken by only looking at the video. The tapes will be studied frame by frame, which will allow scientists to analyze them very closely.
Koczor says much of the data still needs to be analyzed, but the current results have stumped the scientific community. “It’s easy if we see nothing,” Koczor says. But if there’s something there, “it’s a different ball game.”
Now scientists got another chance to observe this phenomenon closely, enough to explain why gravity would change during solar eclipse?
According to a report in New Scientist, geophysicists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are preparing an unprecedented array of highly sensitive instruments at six sites across the country to take gravity readings during the total eclipse due to pass over southern China on July 22.
The results, which will be analyzed in the coming months, could confirm once and for all that anomalous fluctuations observed during past eclipses are real.
“I’m not really convinced the anomaly exists, but it would be revolutionary if it turned out to be true,” said Chris Duif of Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
The team hopes that the vast distance between the sites (roughly 3000 kilometers between the most easterly and westerly stations), as well as the number and diversity of instruments used, will eliminate the chance of instrument error or local atmospheric disturbances.
“If our equipment operates correctly, I believe we have a chance to say the anomaly is true beyond all doubt,” said Tang Keyun, a geophysicist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The opportunity won’t come again soon. At over five minutes, the event will be the longest total solar eclipse predicted for this century.
What’s more, the event will occur when the sun is high in the sky; a time when, according to Tang, any potential gravitational anomaly should be greatest.
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