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Warm Jupiter exoplanet orbiting distant star detected

Astronomers report the discovery of a new warm Jupiter exoplanet orbiting a distant star in the open cluster Messier 67. The newfound extrasolar world, designated S1429 b, is almost twice as massive as Jupiter. The finding ...

Compact robot takes flight to support CERISS initiative

A new robot will be taking flight soon to test its ability to support biological and physical science experiments in microgravity. As one of NASA's 2023 TechFlights selections, this compact robot will have a chance to fly ...

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body, for example the gravitational orbit of a planet around a star.

Historically, the apparent motion of the planets were first understood in terms of epicycles, which are the sums of numerous circular motions. This predicted the path of the planets quite well, until Johannes Kepler was able to show that the motion of the planets were in fact elliptical motions.[citation needed] Isaac Newton was able to prove that this was equivalent to an inverse square, instantaneously propagating force he called gravitation.[citation needed] Albert Einstein later was able to show that gravity is due to curvature of space-time, and that orbits lie upon geodesics. This is the current understanding.

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