In this Dec. 11, 1963, image, technicians prepare a test subject for studies on the Reduced Gravity Walking Simulator at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. This position meant that a person’s legs experienced only one sixth of their weight, which was the equivalent of being on the Moon’s surface. The simulator was used […]
During the year’s final episode of “Saturday Night Live,” cast member Bowen Yang appeared at the “Weekend Update” desk dressed as one of the drones that have been sighted over the skies of New Jersey — which, as co-anchor Michael Che explained, caused the FAA to issue “temporary flight restrictions” over the state. “Wow, indoors,” Yang […]
“You were brilliant,” the singer writes of the film’s stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Everyone is feeling Wicked these days. The film starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda has inspired memes, plenty of social media discourse, a surprise piano performance from Jeff Goldblum who plays the Wizard of Oz, and […]
The sparkling band of the Milky Way Galaxy backdrops the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R.T. Sparks When Albert Einstein introduced his theory of general relativity in 1915, it changed the way we viewed the universe. His gravitational model showed how Newtonian gravity, which had dominated astronomy and […]
Tracy E. Gilchrist’s interview with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo stood out among dozens of others on the “Wicked” press tour. She called it “high camp” but sincere.
Earth, sun, moon: three objects in space whose interactions have a pretty big impact on our lives. Earth orbits the sun once a year, and it rotates on its axis about once a day (depending on your definition of “rotate”). This gives us the night-day sequence and the yearly cycle of the seasons. The moon’s […]
QUICK FACTS Name: Indian Ocean geoid low Location: Laccadive Sea, southwest of India Why it’s incredible: The huge gravity hole formed on the site of a prehistoric ocean. The Indian Ocean “gravity hole” is the site of the deepest dent in Earth’s gravitational field. It’s a circular ocean region with a gravitational pull that’s so […]
