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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.

Using holograms to illuminate de Sitter space

Our understanding of the universe may not be expanding as much as the universe itself. In some cases, our theories about cosmic inflation may feel as if they are deflating into a black hole.

Astrophysicists theorize a new type of neutron star

A pair of researchers, one with Manly Astrophysics, the other with Universidad de Murcia, has proposed the existence of a new type of neutron star. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Arthur Suvorov ...

Fresh approaches to processing GRACE data

To document large-scale transformations on Earth, such as waning ice sheets and shifting coastlines, geoscientists often use views from space to track mass changes on daily to decadal timescales.

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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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