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Elliptical orbits describe the motion of celestial bodies under the influence of gravity, where the path traced is an ellipse with one of the foci occupied by the more massive body. This concept is central to Kepler's First Law of Planetary Motion, highlighting how gravitational forces govern the trajectories of planets, moons, and satellites in space.
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General relativity, formulated by Albert Einstein, is a theory of gravitation that describes gravity as the warping of spacetime by mass and energy, rather than as a force acting at a distance. It fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe, predicting phenomena such as the bending of light around massive objects and the existence of black holes.
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The event horizon is the boundary surrounding a black hole beyond which no information or matter can escape, effectively marking the point of no return. It is a critical concept in understanding the nature of black holes, as it delineates the observable universe from the singularity at the core of the black hole.
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Gravitational collapse is the process by which an astronomical object contracts under its own gravity, leading to the formation of dense celestial bodies such as stars, black holes, or neutron stars. This phenomenon occurs when internal pressure is insufficient to counteract gravitational forces, often triggered by changes in temperature, mass, or composition.
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Black holes are regions in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from them. They are formed when massive stars collapse under their own gravity at the end of their life cycles, leading to singularities surrounded by an event horizon.
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The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model explaining the universe's origin from a singularity approximately 13.8 billion years ago, leading to its ongoing expansion. It provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the cosmic microwave background radiation, the abundance of light elements, and the large-scale structure of the cosmos.
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The curvature of spacetime is a fundamental aspect of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, describing how mass and energy influence the geometry of the universe, causing the gravitational attraction we observe. This curvature dictates the motion of objects and the propagation of light, effectively explaining gravity not as a force, but as the result of objects following the natural curvature of spacetime.
The Penrose-Hawking Singularity Theorems establish conditions under which gravitational collapse or the expansion of the universe leads inevitably to singularities in spacetime, regions where the known laws of physics breakdown. These theorems leverage the concept of geodesic incompleteness, demonstrating that singularities are an intrinsic feature of general relativity rather than a mathematical artifact.
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Quantum Gravity is a theoretical framework that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics, aiming to unify general relativity with quantum physics. It remains one of the most significant unsolved problems in theoretical physics, with various approaches like string theory and loop Quantum Gravity being actively explored.
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The Einstein Field Equations are a set of ten interrelated differential equations in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity that describe how matter and energy in the universe influence the curvature of spacetime. These equations form the core of general relativity, allowing for the prediction of gravitational phenomena such as black holes, gravitational waves, and the expansion of the universe.
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