posted on Feb, 20 2005 @ 11:29 AM
Scientists have announced a plan to map the orbit of the moon, according to a story on NewScientist.com. They hope that the new measurements, accurate
to within a few centimetres, will help explain the accelerating expansion of the Universe, something that can not be explained with known forces and
should not be possible according to Einstein's theory of relativity. Scientists speculate that the Universe may have several dimensions (as per
string theory) and that over long distances gravity could actually leak over into these other dimensions. It is believed that this leaking could help
explain the troubling acceleration, and mapping the orbit of the moon is the first step in finding evidence to back up the claim.
Plans to trace the Moon's orbit with extraordinary new accuracy could reveal kinks in Einstein's theory of gravity and help explain the mysterious
accelerating expansion of the universe, says a US researcher.
The acceleration cannot be explained by known forces in the Universe. To account for the behaviour, cosmologists have introduced the concept of a new,
as yet unseen, force - dark energy.
But Gia Dvali, of New York University, US, believes there could be another explanation. He thinks the accelerating expansion might be caused by
unexpected properties of gravity, which are only seen over very large distances. Taking inspiration from string theory, which proposes the existence
of several extra dimensions, Dvali, and NYU colleagues Gregory Gabadadze and Massimo Porrati, suggests that gravity may leak into an extra dimension
on this large scale.