News tagged with gravity field

NASA lunar spacecraft GRAIL complete prime mission ahead of schedule

(Phys.org) -- A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core has completed its prime mission earlier than expected. The team of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, with twin ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

CryoSat goes to sea

CryoSat was launched in 2010 to measure sea-ice thickness in the Arctic, but data from the Earth-observing satellite have also been exploited for other studies. High-resolution mapping of the topography of the ocean floor ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

NASA releases new moon pics requested by students

(AP) -- A NASA spacecraft in orbit around the moon has sent back five dozen new images of the lunar surface including a view of the far side with Earth in the distance.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Mercury's surprising core and landscape curiosities

(PhysOrg.com) -- On March 17, the tiny MESSENGER spacecraft completed its primary mission to orbit and observe the planet Mercury for one Earth-year. The bounty of surprises from the mission has completely ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 21, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

At 10, GRACE continues defying, and defining, gravity

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as the lead characters in the popular Broadway musical "Wicked" sing about defying gravity, the low-Earth orbiting twin spacecraft of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

'Gravity is climate' - 10 years of climate research satellites GRACE

For the first time, the melting of glaciers in Greenland could now be measured with high accuracy from space. Just in time for the tenth anniversary of the twin satellites GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Mar 16, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 5

Gravitational lens reveals details of distant, ancient galaxy

Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, University of Chicago scientists working with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a uniquely close-up look at the brightest gravitationally ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (21) | comments 29 | with audio podcast

Twin Grail spacecraft begin collecting lunar science data

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft orbiting the moon officially have begun their science collection phase. During the next 84 days, scientists will obtain a ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 07, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Weightlessness weighs heavy on genes -- a fly's perspective

On Earth all biology is subjected to gravity. Some biological systems require gravity for correct orientation (geotropism: plants grow up, roots grow down). In the absence of gravity even human biology is affected: astronauts ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 31, 2012 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Students rename NASA moon probes Ebb and Flow

A pair of unmanned NASA spacecraft that are orbiting the Moon were renamed Ebb and Flow on Tuesday by a middle school class in Montana, the US space agency announced.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 4

Magnetically-levitated flies offer clues to future of life in space (w/ video)

Using powerful magnets to levitate fruit flies can provide vital clues to how biological organisms are affected by weightless conditions in space, researchers at The University of Nottingham say.

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 04, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

NASA's GRAIL-A spacecraft 24 hours away from Moon

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft is within 24 hours of its insertion burn that will place it into lunar orbit. At the time the spacecraft crossed the milestone ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 31, 2011 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (9) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Twin probes to circle moon to study gravity field

The moon has come a long way since Galileo first peered at it through a telescope. Unmanned probes have circled around it and landed on its surface. Twelve American astronauts have walked on it. And lunar ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 26, 2011 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (11) | comments 25

Unique geologic insights from 'non-unique' gravity and magnetic interpretation

(PhysOrg.com) -- In many fields of applied science, such as geology, there are often tensions and disagreements between scientists who specialize in analyses of problems using mathematical models to describe sets of collected ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 02, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Texas drought visible in new national groundwater maps

(PhysOrg.com) -- The record-breaking drought in Texas that has fueled wildfires, decimated crops and forced cattle sales has also reduced levels of groundwater in much of the state to the lowest levels seen ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 30, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 9

Gravitational field

A gravitational field is a model used within physics to explain how gravity exists in the universe. In its original concept, gravity was a force between point masses. Following Newton, Laplace attempted to model gravity as some kind of radiation field or fluid, and since the 19th century explanations for gravity have usually been sought in terms of a field model, rather than a point attraction.

In a field model, rather than two particles attracting each other, the particles distort spacetime via their mass, and this distortion is what is perceived subjectively as a "force". In fact there is no force in such a model, rather matter is simply responding to the curvature of spacetime itself.

For more information about Gravitational field, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: launch , nasa , spacecraft , moon