News tagged with gravity field

Proposed Spacetime Structure Could Provide Hints for Quantum Gravity Theory

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spacetime, which consists of three dimensions of space and one time dimension, is such a large, abstract concept that scientists have a very difficult time understanding and defining it. Moreover, ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (58) | comments 16 feature

Gravity might amplify quantum fluctuations, create astrophysical objects

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a new study, physicists have proposed that gravity could trigger a runaway effect in quantum fluctuations, causing them to grow so large that the quantum field’s vacuum energy density could dominate its ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 17, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (28) | comments 9 | with audio podcast report

Researchers propose new way to reproduce a black hole

(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite their popularity in the science fiction genre, there is much to be learned about black holes, the mysterious regions in space once thought to be absent of light. In a paper published in the August ...

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 21, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (22) | comments 27

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

GOCE satellite achieves drag-free perfection (w/Videos)

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's gravity mission GOCE has achieved a first in the history of satellite technology. The sophisticated electric propulsion system has shown that it is able to keep the satellite completely ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 26, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (19) | comments 11

Proposed test of weak equivalence principle could be most accurate yet

(PhysOrg.com) -- The weak equivalence principle (WEP) - which states that all bodies fall at the same rate in a gravitational field, regardless of structure or composition - is one of the key postulates of ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 03, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (18) | comments 18 feature

Earth is getting fatter

Like many of its inhabitants, the Earth is getting thicker around the middle -- that's what a new study out this week says. The increased bulge is due to the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 28, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (17) | comments 18 | with audio podcast

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

NASA Spacecraft Falling For Mars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Launched in September of 2007, and propelled by any one of a trio of hyper-efficient ion engines, NASA's Dawn spacecraft passed the orbit of Mars last summer. At that time, the asteroid belt ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 13, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (12) | comments 2

Mice Levitated for Space Research

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have managed to levitate young mice in research carried out for NASA. Levitated mice may help research on bone density loss during long exposures to low gravity, such as in space ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 11, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (12) | comments 21 weblog

Phobos flyby success

Mars Express encountered Phobos last night, smoothly skimming past at just 67 km, the closest any manmade object has ever approached Mars' enigmatic moon. The data collected could help unlock the origin of ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 04, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

GOCE delivering data for best gravity map ever (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Following the launch and in-orbit testing of the most sophisticated gravity mission ever built, ESA’s GOCE satellite is now in ‘measurement mode’, mapping tiny variations in Earth’s gravity ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 3

GOCE giving new insights into Earth's gravity (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first global gravity model based on GOCE satellite data has been presented at ESA's Living Planet Symposium. ESA launched GOCE in March 2009 to map Earth's gravity with unprecedented accuracy ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 29, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Dawn beams back asteroid science data

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Dawn spacecraft has completed a graceful spiral into the first of four planned science orbits during the spacecraft's yearlong visit to Vesta. The spacecraft started taking detailed observations ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Twin NASA craft launched to study insides of moon

A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion - all the way down to the core.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 10, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (9) | 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