ISP 205: Visions of the Universe - Department of Physics & Astronomy

Check list

• Visited class web page on

A foot print on the moon

http://physics.uwyo.edu/~mbrother/a1050s11/a1050s11.html? • Got and READ Syllabus? • Got Textbook? • Got Mastering Astronomy account? • Read the assigned pages for this class? • Went/Going to Lab? 1 © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 1 Our Place in the Universe “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001) “Galactic Stress” by David Levine, available for free online: http://www.mikebrotherton.com/diamonds/?page_id=41 The opening scene to the movie Contact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNAUR7NQCLA © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 1 Our Place in the Universe

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

1.1 Our Modern View of the Universe Our goals for learning: • What is our place in the universe? • How did we come to be? • How can we know what the universe was like in the past? • Can we see the entire universe?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

What is our place in the universe?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Star A large, glowing ball of gas that generates heat and light through nuclear fusion

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Planet

Mars

Neptune

A moderately large object that orbits a star; it shines by reflected light. Planets may be rocky, icy, or gaseous in composition. © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Moon (or Satellite) An object that orbits a planet

Ganymede (orbits Jupiter)

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Asteroid A relatively small and rocky object that orbits a star

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Comet A relatively small and icy object that orbits a star

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Pluto A relatively small yellow dog from Disney. “If Pluto is a dog, then what’s Goofy?” Continuing… © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Solar (Star) System A star and all the material that orbits it, including its planets and moons

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Nebula An interstellar cloud of gas and/or dust

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Galaxy A great island of stars in space, all held together by gravity and orbiting a common center

M31, the great galaxy in Andromeda © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Universe The sum total of all matter and energy; that is, everything within and between all galaxies

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How did we come to be?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How can we know what the universe was like in the past? • Light travels at a finite speed (300,000 km/s). Destination

Light travel time

Moon

1 second

Sun

8 minutes

Sirius

8 years

Andromeda Galaxy

2.5 million years

• Thus, we see objects as they were in the past: The farther away we look in distance, the further back we look in time. © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Example:

We see the Orion Nebula as it looked 1500 years ago.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Example:

This photo shows the Andromeda Galaxy as it looked about 2 1/2 million years ago. Question: When will we be able to see what it looks like now?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Light-year • The distance light can travel in 1 year • About 10 trillion kilometers (6 trillion miles)

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

• At great distances, we see objects as they were when the universe was much younger.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How far is a light-year? 1 light-year = (speed of light)  (1 year) km   365 days 24 hr 60 min 60 s   =  300,000      s 1 yr 1 day 1 hr 1 min    

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How far is a light-year? 1 light-year = (speed of light)  (1 year) km   365 days 24 hr 60 min 60 s   =  300,000     s   1 yr 1 day 1 hr 1 min   =9,460,000,000,000 km

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Can we see the entire universe?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Thought Question Why can’t we see a galaxy 15 billion light-years away? (Assume the universe is 14 billion years old.)

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Thought Question Why can’t we see a galaxy 15 billion light-years away? (Assume the universe is 14 billion years old.)

• Because looking 15 billion light-years away means looking to a time before the universe existed.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Navigating the Universe: Sizes and Scales

“I don’t pretend to understand the Universe. It’s a great deal bigger than I am” - Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) 27 © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

1.2 The Scale of the Universe Our goals for learning: • • • • •

How big is Earth compared to our solar system? How far away are the stars? How big is the Milky Way Galaxy? How big is the universe? How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the universe?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Scale models of the Universe • Scale Sun as a grapefruit (1:10,000,000,000)

29 © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How big is Earth compared to our solar system? Let’s reduce the size of the solar system by a factor of 10 billion; the Sun is now the size of a large grapefruit (14 cm diameter).

How big is Earth on this scale? A. B. C. D.

an atom a ball point a marble a golf ball

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Let’s reduce the size of the solar system by a factor of 10 billion; the Sun is now the size of a large grapefruit (14 cm diameter). How big is Earth on this scale?

A. B. C. D.

an atom a ball point a marble a golf ball

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Where are the planets? • Mercury = grain of sand, 6 meters away (19 feet) • Venus = ball point pen tip, 11 meters (36 feet) away • Earth = tip of ball point pen, 15 meters (49 feet) away – Moon = 4 cm away from Earth

• Mars = large grain of sand, 23 meters (75 feet) away • Jupiter = marble, 78 meters (256 feet!) • Pluto (R.I.P.) = head of a pin, 1/3 mile away

On this scale, where is the nearest star?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

32

• On this scale, the nearest stars would be a triplestar system formed by a cantaloupe, an apple and an orange, located a continent away. • There is essentially nothing in between!!

33 © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

BIG NUMBERS

kilo-

Scale of the Universe mega- (aka million) giga- (aka billion) tera- (aka trillion)

Little

NUMBERS

centimilli34

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

1.3 Spaceship Earth Our goals for learning: • • • •

How is Earth moving in our solar system? How is our solar system moving in the Galaxy? How do galaxies move within the Universe? How do these translate to motion in our sky?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How is Earth moving in our solar system? • Contrary to our perception, we are not “sitting still.” • We are moving with the Earth in several ways, and at surprisingly fast speeds…

The Earth rotates around its axis once every day.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Earth orbits the Sun (revolves) once every year: • at an average distance of 1 AU ≈ 150 million km. • with Earth’s axis tilted by 23.5º (pointing to Polaris) • and rotating in the same direction it orbits, counterclockwise as viewed from above the North Pole.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Our Sun moves randomly relative to the other stars in the local Solar neighborhood… • typical relative speeds of more than 70,000 km/hr • but stars are so far away that we cannot easily notice their motion

… And orbits the galaxy every 230 million years.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

More detailed study of the Milky Way’s rotation reveals one of the greatest mysteries in astronomy: Most of Milky Way’s light comes from disk and bulge …

…. but most of the mass is in its halo © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How do galaxies move within the universe? Galaxies are carried along with the expansion of the Universe. But how did Hubble figure out that the universe is expanding?

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Hubble discovered that: • All galaxies outside our Local Group are moving away from us. • The more distant the galaxy, the faster it is racing away. Conclusion: We live in an expanding universe. We will revisit this topic again at the end of the class.

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

Are we ever sitting still? Earth rotates on axis: > 1,000 km/hr

Earth orbits Sun: > 100,000 km/hr Solar system moves among stars: ~ 70,000 km/hr Milky Way rotates: ~ 800,000 km/hr Milky Way moves in Local Group

Universe expands

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

How has the study of astronomy affected human history? • The Copernican revolution showed that Earth was not the center of the universe (Chapter 3). • Study of planetary motion led to Newton’s laws of motion and gravity (Chapter 4). • Newton’s laws laid the foundation of the industrial revolution. • Modern discoveries are continuing to expand our “cosmic perspective.”

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.

For next class meeting, read: • Chapter 2

Homework: • Register for MasteringAstronomy (see course website for instructions) • complete Introduction Assignments by Wednesday If I don’t screw up, you can get a copy of each lecture slides by 9PM the previous day from the course website

© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. 45