Going to the bathroom is much more complicated in space without any gravity. To solve this problem of tricky orbital potty breaks, NASA builds special toilets that work without gravity.
A person falling into a black hole and being stretched while approaching the black hole’s horizon.
Leo Rodriguez and Shanshan Rodriguez
If you are a sci-fi junkie you’ve probably wondered what would happen if you were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole. How well you’d fare all depends on the type of black hole.
Small boats floating on and under a layer of levitating liquid.
Emmanuel Fort
The Earth spins around its axis every day – but gravity keeps us firmly in place.
A black hole is an object so compact that nothing can escape its gravitational pull, not even light. They are formed when stars die and start collapsing under their own weight. Deep inside the black hole resides an infinitely hot and dense object, a so-called, singularity.
Science Photo Library - MARK GARLICK/Getty Images
The 2020 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three scientists – an Englishman, an American and a German – for breakthroughs in understanding the most mysterious objects in the universe: black holes.
There is a reason why it’s easier to roll marbles down rather than up a hill. And the answer (to this and to gravity itself) is all about acceleration.
Martian meteorites allow scientists here on Earth to decode that planet’s geology, more than a decade before the first missions are scheduled to bring rocks back home from Mars.
The distance between the ISS and Earth is the same as about 3,850 football fields. To bring the station down, rockets will lower it a bit, and then gravity will send it crashing the rest of the way.
Mating laser-driven atomic clocks like the one shown here with microwaves promises more accurate electronic devices.
N. Phillips/NIST
Researchers have made some of the most accurate clocks imaginable in recent years, but the trick is harnessing those clocks to electronics. Using lasers to tune microwaves bridges the gap.
The constant pressure of gravity affects our thoughts and perception, but it’s so constant we haven’t noticed – until now.
The universe is home to a dizzying number of stars and planets. But the vast bulk of the universe is thought to be invisible dark matter.
Illustris Collaboration
Why do astronomers believe there’s dark matter when it cannot be directly detected? Let’s look at the evidence, and see what dark matter’s presence means for our universe.
In the fourth episode of our podcast series, we look at the practical, legal and ethical questions about going to set up base on the moon – and mining its resources.
Gravity helps stars to form.
UNIMAP / L. Piazzo, La Sapienza – Università di Roma; E. Schisano / G. Li Causi, IAPS/INAF, Italy