Science Dictionary
Do you know what a meteor is, or what scientists mean when they are talking about cryogenics? Our collection of science terms explains the meaning of some of the most common scientific ideas.
Topics to Explore:
What Is Solar Wind?
What Existed Before the Big Bang?
What Kind of Technology Could Dark Matter Research Lead To?
Can You Nominate Yourself for a Nobel Prize?
How do you win a Nobel Prize?
How do the Ig Nobel Prizes work?
5 Facts About Marie Curie and the Winningest Nobel Prize Family in History
10 Things You Should Know About Rachel Carson
Stephen Hawking's Last Paper Takes on the Multiverse
How do polymer crystals work and why do they absorb so much water?
What Is Planck's Constant, and Why Does the Universe Depend on It?
Why Is 137 the Most Magical Number?
Researchers 'Teleport' Virtual Lemonade Using Sensors and Bluetooth
Learn More / Page 7
A light year is a way of measuring distance. That doesn't make much sense because "light year" contains the word "year," which is normally a unit of time. Even so, light years measure distance.
When satellites go off to places like Jupiter or Saturn (or even out of the solar system), they follow crazy orbits. They will often loop around a planet to get a "gravity assist" or "gravity boost." How does that work? I know the Galileo probe looped around Earth twice to get a boost, and the Pioneer and Voyager probes used Jupiter.
Have you ever really thought about the scale of the universe? A good starting point is the teaspoon.
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If you took all of the matter in the universe and you pushed it all into one corner, how much space would it take up? I am trying to understand how much of the universe is 'empty.'