[alt_f13]

Think it would be possible to make some sort of extremely sensitive gravity sensing device that could image gravity fields like the way we can image electromagnetic and sound fields now?

A monochromatic view of the world based on the ammount of pull it has on the detector.

Imagine looking at the stars with that!

[JaKiri]

The trouble is, you'd get extremely minor colours from everything then a BIG BIG BIG COLOUR from the earth.

[[Tycho?]]

You would be able to see the ground, the earth and the sun. The ground would be deceptive however, as most of the pull would be directly under you, so the horizon would not seem as far away as it actually was.

[alt_f13]

JaKiri said:

The trouble is, you'd get extremely minor colours from everything then a BIG BIG BIG COLOUR from the earth.

Since modern technology has a cure for such a thing in regards to light, I could see little trouble in coming up with a solution for the case you mentioned.

The device would need some way of focusing the gravitational pull so as to project the effects on several sensors in order to determine direction of the pull, like eyes. It could be done like sonar instead, but the resulting picture would be just as poor as what sonar yields.

Or what?

Could this idea be possible?

[5614]

two peole have said that this would work.... i cant see why it wouldnt in theory

but how would you make it?

[MadScientist]

The only gravity sensing device I can think of is a spring scale, stick a weight on the spring and see how much force it's pulled to the earth by.

Is that how we measure magnetic field strengths??
A gravity measuring device would have to be the same as a magnetic field measuring device, wouldn't it??

Obviously nothing like that could be used to detect the gravitational strengths of stars though..

[alt_f13]

I say a sphere of millions of tiny sensors with only one axis of movement each, and very sensitive, pointing in all directions. The difference in force between them could be compared.

Of course all manors of shielding and compensation for movement would have to be used to keep other forces from fooling with the data.

But what now could something like this be used for? I bet it would be really usefull for interstellar navigation, assuming it could be made to be that sensitive.

[Gilded]

Yet another very interesting topic... I wonder if black holes (or other very gravitationally pull-y things) look the same with a gravity detecting device as neutron stars do when observing magnetic fields. :)

[RICHARDBATTY]

Some equipment has already been used to scan for minor fluctuations in earths gravity from planes to search for oil. I suppose an image orientated version is the next logical step. Cool idea. :-)