MS-ESS1-2

Develop and use a model to describe the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.

  1. Physics

    Einstein taught us: It’s all ‘relative’

    One hundred years ago, a German physicist shared some math he had been working on. In short order, his theory of relativity would revise forever how people viewed the universe.

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  2. Physics

    Stephen Hawking says his group has solved a black hole puzzle

    Physicist Stephen Hawking says light sliding along the outside of a black hole holds the key to understanding what’s inside.

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  3. Planets

    Visiting Pluto

    Pluto has long been little more than a dark spot in the sky. Now NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is about to fly by this dwarf planet. Along the way, it will collect unprecedented data on it.

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  4. Space

    Galaxy cluster creates ‘magnifying glass’ in space

    A massive galaxy’s gravity is so strong that it bends light, creating a “lens” in space. This natural magnifying glass is giving astronomers a rare view of a supernova on the other side of the universe.

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  5. Space

    Astronomers spy fastest speeding star

    A few stars have been spotted departing our galaxy. The fastest of these might have been propelled by another exploding star, a new study finds.

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  6. Space

    Dust erases evidence of primordial gravity waves

    In March 2014, scientists claimed to have found the first echoes of the Big Bang — ripples in the very fabric of space. A new analysis shows the experts were mistaken. Dust appears to explain the confusion.

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  7. Space

    Black holes are on collision course

    But be patient. The distant galactic smashup is still some million years away.

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  8. Earth

    Explainer: Understanding ice ages

    Earth slowly wobbles, tilts and stretches (or contracts) as it orbits the sun. These changes may be fairly small and subtle. Still, their cumulative impacts can be huge — sometimes triggering the slow onset of an ice age or an abrupt thaw.

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  9. Planets

    Explainer: What are asteroids?

    Leftovers from the creation of the solar system, asteroids are space rocks that orbit the sun. Let’s hope the big ones never become meteorites.

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  10. Space

    Monster collision in space

    The smashup of four clusters of galaxies has sent a super-hot jet of charged particles spewing 2.5 million light-years into space!

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  11. Planets

    First mega-Earth found

    Astronomers are puzzled by Kepler-10c. This exoplanet is rocky like Earth — but as massive as Neptune. And that challenges their accepted ideas about how planets form.

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  12. Planets

    Distant planet may boast the longest year

    On a planet far, far away, a single pass around its sun may seem to last forever.

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