Space Jell-O

What does JELL-O have to do with bending space?

illustration of ball bending space

When an object has mass, it bends the space around it.

Space  is the stuff that surrounds all matter. It may be invisible, but there's space surrounding you, all the things around you, and everything in the universe.

Did you know that space can bend?  Albert Einstein  proved that space bends around anything that has mass — planets, stars, even you. The more mass an object has, the more space bends around it.

2 boys about to take a bite of Jell-O

To see Einstein's theory for yourself, make your very own edible space out of Jell-O. Of course, space isn't exactly like Jell-O, but you will be able to see how invisible space bends around different kinds of matter.

button that says Try it!

What's Mass?

Mass is the amount of matter  or stuff something has in it. Things can be very tiny and have a lot of mass, or be very big and not have much mass at all. Think of a beach ball and a bowling ball. The beach ball may be a lot bigger, but the material inside the bowling ball is a lot more dense than the air inside the beach ball — so the bowling ball has more mass!

Image Credits:

Photos: courtesy of AMNH