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The Global Positioning System consists of 31 Earth-orbiting satellites, each carrying an atomic clock that sends a highly accurate timing signal to the ground. Anybody with an appropriate receiver can work out their position to within a few meters by comparing the arrival time of signals from three or more satellites.
And this system can easily be improved. The accuracy of GPS signals can be made much higher by combining the signals with ones produced on the ground. Geophysicists, for example, use this technique to determine the position of ground stations to within a few millimeters. In this way, they can measure the tiny movements of entire continents.
This is an impressive endeavor. Geophysicists routinely measure the difference between GPS signals and clocks on the ground with an accuracy of less than 0.1 nanoseconds. They also archive this data providing a detailed record of how GPS signals have changed over time. This archival storage opens the possibility of using the data for other exotic studies.
Today Benjamin Roberts at the University of Nevada and a few pals say they have used this data to find out whether GPS satellites may have been influenced by dark matter, the mysterious invisible stuff that astrophysicists think fills our galaxy. In effect, these guys have turned the Global Positioning System into an astrophysical observatory of truly planetary proportion.
The theory behind dark matter is based in observations of the way galaxies rotate. This spinning motion is so fast that it should send stars flying off into extra-galactic space.
But this doesn't happen. Instead, a mysterious force must somehow hold the stars in place. The theory is that this force is gravity generated by invisible stuff that doesn't show up in astronomical observations. In other words, dark matter.
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(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday May 08 2017, @09:28PM (3 children)
Absotutely:
There is no dark matter, there is only:"we need something to support GR, so....... Dark matter!!!"
Dark matter is a kludge to make GR work.
There are better theories out there (one which you show) that don't need kludges.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @09:56PM (2 children)
Dark matter is a kludge to make GR work.
There are better theories out there (one which you show) that don't need kludges.
Please.
1. A proposed theory must be able to explain all current observations
2. A proposed theory must make testable predictions
So. There are plenty of BS stuff out there that accounts for #1, but alas, it doesn't pass muster with #2. What GR did was #2. String Theory did not, so it's not even a theory - sad for its name.
Don't BS about GR when you have no better stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 08 2017, @10:14PM
So just because there is no better theory we should ignore the problems with GR, to the point of hiding key facts about dark matter like that the "amount" is perfectly predictable from the amount of visible matter?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Demena on Tuesday May 09 2017, @03:21AM
Quantacised Irnertia has made many accurate predictions, some tested, many observed. There seems to be an active campaign against it (that does not involve reason and discussion).