astronaut: Someone trained to travel into space for research and exploration.
astrophysicist: A scientist who works in an area of astronomy that deals with understanding the physical nature of stars and other objects in space.
atomic clock: A timekeeping device that relies on the frequency of microwave emissions from excited atoms. For example, for the cesium atom that frequency is 9,192,631,770 hertz (or cycles/oscillations per second). Many common devices including cell phones, computers and GPS-satellite receivers rely on the high accuracy of atomic clocks to regularly reset their time (known as synchronization).
biology: The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.
celestial: (in astronomy) Of or relating to the sky, or outer space.
chaos: A situation that is confused and has no order. (in physics) A situation where the behaviors of a system appear random and unpredictable. Chaos arises because the system is exquisitely sensitive to even small changes in the conditions that define it.
data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning. For digital information (the type stored by computers), those data typically are numbers stored in a binary code, portrayed as strings of zeros and ones.
engineer: A person who uses science and math to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need.
global positioning system: Best known by its acronym GPS, this system uses a device to calculate the position of individuals or things (in terms of latitude, longitude and elevation — or altitude) from any place on the ground or in the air. The device does this by comparing how long it takes signals from different satellites to reach it.
gravity: The force that attracts anything with mass, or bulk, toward any other thing with mass. The more mass that something has, the greater its…
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