alien: (in astronomy) Life on or from a distant world.
astronomer: A scientist who works in the field of research that deals with celestial objects, space and the physical universe.
core: Something — usually round-shaped — in the center of an object.
cosmos: (adj. cosmic) A term that refers to the universe and everything within it.
force: Some outside influence that can change the motion of an object, hold objects close to one another, or produce motion or stress in a stationary object.
fundamental: Something that is basic or serves as the foundation for another thing or idea.
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 gravity.
mass: A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down — basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.
neutron star: The very dense corpse of what had once been a massive star. As the star died in a supernova explosion, its outer layers shot out into space. Its core then collapsed under its intense gravity, causing protons and electrons in its atoms to fuse into neutrons (hence the star’s name). A single teaspoonful of a neutron star, on Earth, would weigh more than a billion tons.
physics: The scientific study of the nature and properties of matter and energy. Classical physics is an explanation of the nature and properties of matter and energy that relies on descriptions such as Newton’s laws of motion. Quantum physics, a field of study that emerged later, is a more accurate way of explaining the motions and behavior of matter. A scientist who works in such areas is known as a physicist.
pulsar: The name for a spinning, ultra-dense neutron star. A single teaspoonful, on Earth, would weigh a billion tons. It represents the end of life for stars that had started out having four to eight times the mass of our sun. As the star died in a supernova explosion, its outer layers shot out into…
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