Category Archives: Physics

The Potsdam Gravity Potato

Posted on February 14, 2015 by revanth111

Source: Universe Today The above picture is a rendering of the Earth’s gravitational field produced by the German Research Center for Geophysics’ Helmholtz’s Center in Potsdam, Germany. Known as the “Gravity Potato,” it shows that the Earth’s gravity is not as uniform as one would think. In fact, the gravitational force is a dynamic surface that […] Continue reading →

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Spectacular arrangement of Mars, Venus and the Moon this week!

Posted on February 14, 2015 by agiantchicken

Check that out! Later on this coming week, it is expected that Mars, Venus, and the Moon will come so close to one another in our sky, that they will be separated by less than a single degree in the sky on February 20! While given the moon’s moves along its orbit rather fast around the […] Continue reading →

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Black Hole!

Posted on February 14, 2015 by newbeelity

A black hole is a mathematically defined region of spacetime exhibiting such a strong gravitational pull that no particle or electromagnetic radiation can escape from it. (Definition from Wikipedia) General relativity indicates that a sufficient density can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of the region from which nothing can escape is called the event horizon. It has no detectable features when observing something traveling across an… Continue reading →

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Special Relativity

Posted on February 14, 2015 by newbeelity

In physics, special relativity (SR, also known as the special theory of relativity or STR) is the accepted physical theory regarding the relationship between space and time.(Definition from Wikipedia) At the end of the 19th century, Maxwell equations of electromagnetism had been proved by plenty of experiments. However, Maxwell equations are not consistent with the Galilean transformations in Newtonian physics. As a result,… Continue reading →

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Gravitational Redshift

Posted on February 14, 2015 by farhannshabab

Most of us know about redshifting, a phenomenon of the Doppler effect. This is the change in frequency of a wave, both mechanical and electromagnetic, for an observer when there is relative motion between the source and the observer. For example, when an observer is moving closer to a wave source, each successive wave front […] Continue reading →

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The Scale of Atoms and Modern Processors

Posted on February 14, 2015 by conorastr201

Everyone knows that atoms are small, but exactly how small is small? This new video by Kurz Gesagt explores this question, and the sheer scale is mind boggling to try to imagine. Among the analogies used is that of filling rooms with rice grains; if the end of your finger was the size of the room, and […] Continue reading →

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ESA’s Rosetta Mission

Posted on February 14, 2015 by bryancm1

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission is probably fresh in a lot of your minds as it came to fruition in November of last year. For those unaware, the Rosetta space probe is the first probe to orbit a comet – the Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe also came equipped with a lander, which touched down shortly […] Continue reading →

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Hubble’s Law

Posted on February 13, 2015 by jamej00

Photo Source: Hubble’s Law Considering the topic of what light can tell us, Hubble’s Law is one topic I’ve always found greatly interesting.  As the picture suggests, the redshift of a distant galaxy is in direct linear proportion to its distance from Earth.  This is the essence of Hubble’s Law – which relates a galaxy’s… Continue reading →

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Smiling Galaxy Cluster Found in Space!

Posted on February 13, 2015 by agiantchicken

That’s some intense gravitation lensing! A cluster of galaxies was recently discovered by the Hubble Telescope (AKA, uber relevant to class!) that appears to take on the shape of a bright smiling face. The galaxy cluster, known as SDSS J1038+4849, recently had the above picture taken by said telescope. While it may appear to us that […] Continue reading →

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Absorption Spectra

Posted on February 12, 2015 by jamej00

Photo Source: Absorption Spectrum The photo above is the full absorption spectrum of the sun.  The black lines come from the different chemical elements within its atmosphere, and this is true for all stars!  Different elements absorb and emit light at different wavelengths from one another.  Scientists have conducted (here on earth) experiments to determine… Continue reading →

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