gravitational field

American  

noun

Physics.

1. the attractive effect, considered as extending throughout space, of matter on other matter.

2. the region surrounding an astronomical body in which the force of gravitation is strong.

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gravitational field British  

noun

1. the field of force surrounding a body of finite mass in which another body would experience an attractive force that is proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them

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Etymology

Origin of gravitational field

First recorded in 1915–20

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gravitational field

By analyzing the stream's shape, researchers reconstructed the gravitational field of its host galaxy and used that information to determine how unseen dark matter influenced the stars' paths.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026

Kinsella noted that the company is working on a larger program with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that aims to fly the first-ever quantum sensor for measuring Earth’s gravitational field in orbit.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

"Next, we wanted to calculate how a small object behaves in this gravitational field -- but using the quantum version of this metric," says Koch.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 9, 2026

The Rose Field refers to a magnetic or gravitational field, and was mentioned in the opening chapters of Northern Lights, when scholars at Lyra's Oxford college secretly discussed a mysterious phenomenon called Dust.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2025

As light travels upward in the earth’s gravitational field, it loses energy, and so its frequency goes down.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking

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