Related topics: galaxies

Q&A: Why is there so much hype about the quantum computer?

How far along are the quantum technologies? And what do we really mean when we use the word quantum? Senior Adviser Ulrich Busk Hoff has been conducting research into and communicating about quantum physics for several years. ...

Physicists discover that gravity can create light

Researchers have discovered that in the exotic conditions of the early universe, waves of gravity may have shaken space-time so hard that they spontaneously created radiation.

Astronomers observe light bending around an isolated white dwarf

Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a dead star using an effect known as gravitational microlensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, and first observed by two Cambridge astronomers ...

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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.

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