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Gravitational Force

This infographic is done mostly in shades of blue. At the top left is the title: "Gravitational Force." Below that is a block of text that reads: "Gravity, the force that draws objects together, can be understood as bends and curves in the fabric of space-time. Anything with mass makes these dents, from the Earth and Moon to turtles and cats." Below the text, taking up most of the image, is an illustration of Earth and the Moon which is on top of an oval that contains concentric rings outlined in orange representing the fabric of space-time. Directly beneath Earth and the Moon are dips in space-time.
Credit: NASA
Published: December 20, 2022

This illustration explains the gravitational force, one of the four fundamental forces in the universe.

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This illustration explains the weak force, one of the four fundamental forces in the universe.
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This infographic is done mostly in shades of blue. At the top left is the title: "Weak Force." Below that is a block of text that reads: "The weak force can change a quark from one type to another: from up to down. That change could turn a proton into a neutron or vice versa. This process would also produce a neutrino and an electron or anti-electron through a process called beta decay." Below and to the right of the text is an illustration of a blue proton and a red neutron with pop outs. The proton is on the left. Its pop out shows a cluster of two yellow up quarks and one pink down quark. An arrow is pointing to one of the up quarks. The pop up for the neutron shows a cluster of two pink down quarks and one yellow up quark. An arrow points to one of the down quarks, indicating that it flipped from an up quark, which changed the proton into a neutron.
Weak Force
NASA's Spitzer captured this mosaic image of the Cepheus C and Cepheus B regions in the constellation Cepheus.
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Two cloudy nebula appear in this image, each in shades of green, yellow and red. One appears to blast across the image from the lower left just about to the top of the image just the right of center. At the top end the nebua had a bright white spot with a red halo, and trailing behind to the lower left of the image is a semi-transparent green cloud looking like a dress trailing behind. Taking up the lower right portion of the image is a compact green bundle of clouds, with just a thin strip of black sky between the two nebulae.
Cepheus C & Cepheus B
NASA's (PIPER) studies patterns of light in the universe’s baby picture, as shown in this infographic.
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This infographic shows many factoids about the PIPER (Primordial Inflation Polarization Explorer) balloon mission. At the top, there is part of an image of the cosmic microwave background with the text, “The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is heat left over from the big bang and is the oldest light we can see in the universe.” Just below that, near a circular, bright “explosion” is the text, “Scientists are studying the CMB for proof that the universe expanded rapidly immediately after the big bang.” Next is an image of two circles of yellow lines that look like 8-pointed pinwheels that would swirls in opposite directions with text, “This process, called inflation, should have created gravitational waves. If so, light from the CMB should contain a distinct twisting polarization pattern called B-mode.” There is a cut-out line drawing of the PIPER payload with the silhouette of a person standing next to it, showing that it is about two persons’ high. The text says, “PIPER is a microwave telescope flown on a high-altitude balloon. The instrument has twin telescopes in a hot-tub-sized container of liquid helium.” Next there is text with icicles below it that reads, “Liquid helium keeps the instrument at -452 degrees Fahrenheit (-269 Celsius).” Near a map of the United States with a telescope by Maryland and a lightbulb near California is the text, “The detectors on PIPER could spot a 60-watt incandescent light bulb in California from PIPER's base of operations at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.” A silhouette of a hippopotamus accompanies the text, “PIPER's total weight, including instrument, balloon and ballast, is about 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms), as much as a full-grown male hippopotamus.” An illustration of the fully inflated balloon appears with the text, “Width of fully inflated balloon: 430 feet (130 meters).” Underneath the balloon are three houses. The text nearby explains, “The balloon expands to approximately 40 million cubic feet (1.1 million cubic meters) when it reaches maximum altitude. It's made from polyethylene film comparable in thickness to ordinary plastic sandwich wrap.” A drawing of Australia, Texas and New Mexico is accompanied by the text, “Flights are planned from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico, Palestine, Texas and Alice Springs, Australia. Overnight flights from these three locations will allow PIPER to cover 85 percent of the sky.” And finally, a commercial airplane near the bottom has text, “PIPER's maximum altitude is about 120,000 feet (36,000 meters). That's more than three times the cruising altitude of a commercial airplane.”
PIPER Infographic
Algo extraño y misterioso se arrastra por el cosmos. Los científicos lo llaman materia oscura.
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Una red luminosa es visible en el cielo nocturno más allá del límite de un bosque. Dispersa entre los nodos de la red está la oscuridad, que denota la presencia de materia oscura. En el centro de la telaraña, la oscuridad se funde para crear la forma de una araña.
Materia Oscura – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
NASA’s TESS captured these animated images of the northern sky over the course of one year.
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A circular view of the northern sky with segments unfolded like a fan. The sky is full of stars, with a bright band of white light running nearly up and down just to the left of the center. This bright band is the plane of the Milky Way.
TESS's Northern Sky Vista
This simulated image of part of the Andromeda galaxy highlights the potential of NASA’s upcoming Roman mission.
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This image shows the detector “footprint” of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Six columns of three squares are arranged such that the top of the middle two columns are close to the top of the image, the next two columns are a little lower down, and the two outer columns are even lower. Within these square are seen a simulated image that has a background of pale black dotted with stars. The squares on the lower left side have brighter light, which would represent regions of the sky closer to the center of the Andromeda galaxy.
Simulated Image Demonstrates Roman's Future Power
An image from NASA’s Chandra shows the location of several elements produced by the explosion of Cassiopeia A.
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In the center of a black background is a large circular object outlined by electric blue filaments that jolt and weave throughout the structure. The object, which is the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, includes strings of vibrant colors including purple, orange, yellow and blue.
Chandra Reveals Elementary Nature of Cassiopeia A
NASA's Swift imaged the extremely luminous afterglow of explosion GRB 080319B.
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The image has two views of the same portion of sky. On the left, the X-ray light is shown in yellows and oranges like a bright ball of fire on a black background. On the right is the optical view with several balls of white light showing a starry background. In the center of the image is one of the balls of light but surrounded by an orange and green halo.
A Stellar Explosion You Could See on Earth
These images show the steadily improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow from NASA’s Fermi.
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The image is broken up into a grid of eight panels. The first panel has text that reads: “Fermi Images the Moon. These images show the Fermi mission’s improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow. Brighter colors correspond to greater numbers of gamma rays above 31 million electron volts, tens of millions of times the energy of visible light. At these energies, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun. The glow comes from cosmic rays, particles that constantly bombard the lunar surface. The Moon has no magnetic field, which would screen out lower-energy particles. So instead they strike and interact with the surface, which produces gamma rays. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration.” The first panel also includes a visible-light image of the Moon, which is small in the center of the panel. The subsequent panels are labeled 2 months, 4 months, 8 months, 16 months, 32 months, 64 months, and 128 months. Each shows a bright yellow region in the middle surrounded by a haze of orange that fades into light red at the edges of the image. The first image is extremely pixelated, with the the central circle coming into more focus with each subsequent image.
Fermi Sees the Moon in Gamma Rays
Something strange and mysterious creeps throughout the cosmos. Scientists call it dark matter.
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A luminous web is visible in the night sky beyond a treeline. Scattered between the nodes of the web is darkness, signifying the presence of dark matter. In the center of the web, the darkness melds to form the shape of a spider.
Dark Matter – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
NASA's Chandra captured this image of a beautiful X-ray nebula.
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A supernova remnant rises like an ethereal blue hand across the center of the image. This blue hand-shaped nebula intersects a spotty red oval with dots of light. These both represent X-ray views of the nebula, with the highest energy X-rays shown in blue, and the lower energy in red.
Pulsar PSR B1509-58 Shows its Hand
This is a mosaic the entire sky as observed by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).
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The image is an oval, which represents the sky folded out onto a flat surface. There is an electric blue, fuzzy light running left to right in the center of the image, showing emission from the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. About half way between the center of the image and the left edge, that blue line turns green and expands out into diffuse clouds. That blue line similarly expands into diffuse green clouds on the right side, too. Most of the rest of the image appears black with just a few spots of dim green clouds dotted around the image.
The WISE Infrared Sky
This image of Comet Lulin, taken Jan. 28, 2009 merges data acquired by NASA's Swift mission.
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A bright ball of white light is surrounded by a halo of purple and pink. The purple appears in a circle around the white light while the pink is offset to the left and below the central white ball. This is all on a black background dotted with blue stars.
NASA's Swift Spies Comet Lulin
NASA's SOFIA detected the magnetic field streamlines shown in this ESO image of the Keyhole Nebula.
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The nebula appears as a swirl of magenta and purple clouds in a shape roughly like a human heart. The central part of the nebula has a bright magenta oval surrounded by white and pale purple. Through this central region there are lines overlaid on the image showing where SOFIA has obtained information about the magnetic fields. The lines run from the left down through the lower part of the magenta oval. Some of the bundle of lines loop up and over the magenta center, all meeting toward the middle of the image. All of this is on a black background dotted with white lights.
Keyhole Nebula
A real monster black hole is revealed in this image from NASA's NuSTAR and Hubble.
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Three panels show the same region of sky in different wavelengths of light. On the left is a high-energy X-ray image, which has a bright white spot at the center with a halo of reds and yellows. The halo is brightest on the left side of the white central spot. On the right is the optical light image, which shows two cloudy ovals in shards of white, pale blue and red coming together. Where they meet the image is very bright. Also in the image are a few background spots of light on the black background. In the central image, the X-ray and optical images are shown together, so we see the bright spot where the galaxies come together surrounded by the red X-ray haze.
Tale of Two Black Holes
This far-off blue planet may look like a friendly haven – but don’t be deceived! Weather here is deadly.
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A poster done in the style of a vintage poster for a horror movie. Reading "Rains of Terror," it's death by a million cuts on this slasher planet. Jagged edges of glass can be seen battering a spacecraft on this alien world.
Rains of Terror – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
This bone-chilling force will leave you shivering alone in terror!
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This poster pictures an ominous, green bat that emerges from the cosmos, pushing objects like galaxies and stars further apart into the void of outer space.
Dark Energy – "Galaxy of Horrors" poster (English)
The "Hand of God," a pulsar wind nebula, is imaged here by NASA's Chandra and NuSTAR missions.
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A supernova remnant rises like an ethereal hand up the center of the image. The “wrist” appears in bright white while the finger-like structures are formed from a tangle of yellow strands of emission. This hand-shaped nebula intersects a spotty red oval with dots of light.
X-ray View of 'Hand of God'
Explore this infographic to learn more about SuperTIGER, cosmic rays, and scientific ballooning.
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This infographic shows many factoids about the SuperTIGER balloon mission. The poster has the header: “SuperTIGER Catching heavy cosmic rays.” There is a cut-out line drawing of the SuperTIGER payload as if it was dangling from a balloon. Near this is the text, “SuperTIGER is a souped-up version of the Trans-Iron Galactice Element Recorder (TIGER) detector that flew in 1997, 2001, and 2003.” next to that are a series of representations of cosmic rays from an electron (1% of cosmic rays), hydrogen (90%), helium (8%), and heavier nuclei (1%). Next to that is a periodic table of the elements with the elements from neon (atomic #10) to barium (atomic #56) highlighted. This is accompanied by the text, “Cosmic rays are particles from far outside the solar system traveling at up to nearly the speed of light. SuperTIGER seeks heavy atomic nuclei ranging from neon to barium.” Just below the cosmic ray particles and periodic table is a silhouette of a van accompanying the text, “SuperTIGER and its supporting hardware weighs 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms), comparable to a full-size van.” A drawing of Antarctica with arrows encircling the continent in a counterclockwise direction is accompanied by the text, “SuperTIGER launches from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, and can float for weeks. Circular winds aloft confine it to the continent.” Just below these items there is a depiction of the balloon at launch, taking up about two-thirds the height of the poster. The line drawing of the balloon at launch includes the inflated portion of the balloon, which is just a small upside down tear-drop at the top, the recovery parachute, and the SuperTIGER payload. With this is the text, “Balloon at launch, 856 feet (261 meters) tall.” The balloon stands next to a line drawing of the Washington Monument, which stands 555 feet (169 meters) tall. Next to this is a depiction of the balloon in flight, with the balloon fully inflated from the top down to the recovery parachute. The text says: “Balloon at altitude, 460 feet (140 meters) across.” Next to the payload drawing is the text, “SuperTIGER reaches a maximum height of about 127,000 feet (39,000 meters).” Near this is a drawing of a commercial jet and the text, “That’s nearly four times the typical cruising altitude of commercial airliners and above 99.5 percent of the atmosphere.”
SuperTIGER Infographic
This composite image of the Crab Nebula uses data from NASA's Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer missions.
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The image is dominated by the X-ray emission from the Crab nebula, shown in shades of blue and white. At the center is a bright ball surrounded by an oval of light whose long axis is tilted just to the left. Rising up and to the right from that oval is a cloud of material that looks like a witch’s hat with a broad brim and dented point. From the central ball there is also a bent stream of material to the left and downward. The optical light, in purple, appears as a background to the blue and white as a wispy cloud. The infrared emission, shown in pink, surrounds the blue and white light, looking like a diffuse web.
NASA Missions Study the Crab Nebula
Flaring, active regions of our Sun are highlighted in this image combining observations from several telescopes.
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The Sun appears as a red-hued marble with black branching strips and few bright dots in white with small haloes of pale blue and electric green. All around the edge of the Sun is a glow, appearing like short fur in orange, yellow, and two bright spots of white on the right and left sides.
Searing Sun Seen in X-rays
This visualization shows gamma rays detected by NASA's Fermi during a flare from galaxy 3C 279.
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This GIF shows a representation of a gamma-ray flare from an active galaxy. Throughout the animation, circles appear that then expand like raindrops on water in varying sizes and shades of magenta. The smaller circles with lighter colors represent lower energy gamma rays, and the larger circles with darker colors are higher energy gamma rays. The animation starts with just a few of these drops across the image, with the density increasing and more large drops appearing in the center of the image toward the end, until the image is nearly filled with the expanding circles.
Fermi Spots Record Flare from Blazar 3C 279
This NASA NuSTAR image reveals high-energy X-rays from radioactive material in Cassiopeia A.
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This image of X-ray light from a supernova remnant shows a nearly-circular mess of colors representing different wavelengths of X-ray light. Near the center is a blotchy patch of electric blue light. Surrounding and interweaving with that are wisps of yellow, orange and red. A plume of green juts out on the left side of the blast, with green edging around the orange light on the top and bottom of the blast. And a faint ring of pale yellow light surrounds the main ball of color.
Untangling the Remains of Cassiopeia A
¡Esta fuerza escalofriante te dejará temblando de terror!
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Un agujero negro con un disco de material a su alrededor consume y estira las palabras del título encima de él.
Devorado por la Gravedad – "Galaxy of Horrors" póster (En Español)
This illustration explains the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces in the universe.
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This infographic is done mostly in shades of blue. At the top left is the title: "Strong Force." Below that is a block of text that reads: "The strong force holds together things that have the same charge. It's stronger than the electromagnetic force, so that's why atoms with multiple protons and neutrons don't fly apart. But most importantly, it holds together the quarks that make up protons and neutrons themselves. Each proton contains two up quarks and one down. Each neutron contains two down quarks and one up." Below and to the right of the text is an illustration of an atomic nucleus made of two blue protons and two red neutrons. To the left is a pop out that points back to one of the neutrons. This pop out shows a cluster of one yellow up quark and two pink down quarks. Dual directional arrows connect each quark to the other two. To the left of the nuclei is a pop out that points back to one of the protons. This pop out shows a cluster of two yellow quarks and one pink down quark. Dual directional arrows connect each quark to the other two.
Strong Force

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