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Nature’s Design

Nature’s Design. Mark Whittle Astronomy Department, University of Virginia April 26 2005, Designing Matter, #13. Topics 1-12. Designing Matter Lecture Series:. Topics 1 - 12 span: atoms  humans  earth’s surface Topic 13 (this one): the rest of the Universe…….

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Nature’s Design

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  1. Nature’s Design Mark Whittle Astronomy Department, University of Virginia April 26 2005, Designing Matter, #13

  2. Topics 1-12 . Designing Matter Lecture Series: Topics 1 - 12 span: atoms  humans  earth’s surface Topic 13 (this one): the rest of the Universe……. In terms of size : Topic 13 Atomic nucleus

  3. Outline 1) Design in Nature: the stage, actors and play. 2) Quick tour: from nuclei to distant galaxies. Universe as a laboratory of extremes: size/mass/time/power/density/temperature. Constituents, and their construction/creation: nuclei & atoms, particles, matter,forces. Emergence of structure: stars, galaxies, clusters/voids. 6) Origin of energy.

  4. Shakespeare : “As You Like It” Reflections on human life “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being in seven ages.”

  5. Deep Contents • Space & Time (space-time) • Matter (particles) • Forces (act between particles) 4(5) : strong, electromagnetic, weak, gravity, (QM) • Rules (quantum/classical physics) (e.g. conservation laws, QED, QCD, GR) Together, these make four basic structures

  6. Four Basic Structures FORCES strong, EM, QM EM, QM gravity, EM, QM gravity • Nuclei • Atoms • Stars/Planets • Galaxies Lets begin our brief tour of these basic structures

  7. Atoms: • Nuclei: • protons • neutrons • Electrons

  8. Solar magnetic surface storm Earth

  9. Full dark sky (Milky Way dominates) North & South Hemispheres

  10. NGC 891 edge on Spiral Galaxy

  11. Two young star clusters

  12. Slow death of low mass star

  13. Explosive death of high mass star

  14. Supernova remnants: Recycles material back into the ISM where it is incorporated into the next generation of stars.

  15. New star-formation region

  16. New stars in Orion

  17. Early stage of star/planet formation

  18. Jewel Box Cluster Naked eye stars Eagle Nebula Crab Nebula Our Galaxy Earth = 100 nm = virus Sun = 10 μm = cell Earth orbit = ¼ cm = pin head Solar system = 20 cm = saucer Nearest star = 250 m = lawn Solar system Galaxy Center

  19. Galaxies are BIG They contain 100,000,000,000 stars! A hundred thousand million

  20. NGC 3310 Spiral Galaxy

  21. NGC 5194 Spiral Galaxy

  22. NGC 1365 Barred Spiral Galaxy

  23. Interacting galaxies

  24. Merging galaxies N-body simulation

  25. NGC 6240 post merger galaxy

  26. A 1689 Rich galaxy cluster 2 Gly distant Gravitational lens

  27. Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS): Camera & Telescope Galaxy distribution Sheets Walls Clusters Voids 2×106 galaxies projected on sky ⅓×106 galaxies in 3-D 3 billion light years Our galaxy is here

  28. Hubble Space Telescope

  29. Total Number Visible? • Hubble Deep Field: small piece of sky • “Empty” region: 1500 galaxies! •  100,000,000,000 in visible Universe! HST image Ground image HDF

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