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Discover the wonders of the universe, from the birth and death of stars to the expanding space and the Big Bang. Explore galaxies, nebulae, and the evolution of stars. Learn about dark matter and Hubble's Law. Dive into the theories of Einstein, Lemaitre, and Gamow.
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Humans are inherently curious about their place in the Universe .
We live in an Island Universe A Spiral Galaxy seen edge on.
Our galaxy and others are collections of stars of all ages. The birth and death of stars is an ongoing process. Stars are formed by the gravitational collapse of interstellar gas and dust.
The Andromeda Galaxy - our twin at a distance of 2.2 million light-years.
Dark Matter • Motion of stars in the outer region of our galaxy shows that mass of know matter (stars, IM, etc.) is less than 10% of the mass of the Galaxy. • Motion of other galaxies within clusters shows need for dark matter. • Best guess for form of dark matter: exotic matter.
The Rosetta Nebula - hot, glowing hydrogen gas surrounding a cluster of young, hot stars.
The Orion Nebula - one of the maternity wards of the galaxy. New stars are forming from interstellar gas and dust.
Evolution of a 1 solar mass star Protostar - core not hot enough for fusion. Main sequence - hydrogen fuses to helium in the core. Red giant - fusion in a shell surrounding the core. More energy is being generated. Star swells up and cools. Ejects outer regions. White dwarf -dead star, no fusion. It is just cooling off.
The Death of a 1 Solar Mass Star Near the end of its life the star will develop a carbon and oxygen core. The core will not get hot enough to fuse carbon. The star will pulsate unstably and will eject its outer envelop leaving behind a dead star that will become a white dwarf.
The Ring Nebula - when a star like our sun dies it ejects its outer regions. A dead white dwarf star is left behind.
The Death of a 15 Solar Mass Star Near the end of its life the star will develop and iron core. Reactions in the iron core will cause the star to explode (supernova) scattering its contents into interstellar space. A dead neutron star will be left behind. Elements heavier than iron will be created in the explosion.
Crab Nebula -- supernova explosion Massive stars produce the elements from carbon to iron through nuclear fusion over their lifetimes. Supernova explosions produce elements heavier than iron and distribute all these heavier elements into the interstellar matter making them available for later generation stars.
Not only is our galaxy changing with time, the entire Universe is evolving. The space between us and the distance galaxies is increasing with time.
Hubble’s Law: For distant galaxies, the redshift in their radiation (the amount by which the wavelength of the radiation is increased) is directly proportional to the distance to the galaxy. Published in 1929. Edwin Hubble with his cat Nikolus Copernicus. (Colliers Magazine, 1949)
Einstein lecturing on the GTR in Pasadena, California, 1932. Einstein developed the general theory of relativity (GTR) in 1915. It predicted that space had to be either expanding or contracting. Einstein believed this to be incorrect and changed his theory.
Expansion of Space • 1916 - Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that space must be either expanding or contracting. Einstein does not believe this and tries to “fix” the theory. • 1920s - Other astronomers and physicists show that all versions of the GTR require either the expansion or contraction of space. • 1929 - Hubble’s Law. • 1930 - Arthur Eddington explains Hubble’s Law as the expansion of space as described by the GTR. • 1930 - Einstein calls his not accepting his original theory “the greatest blunder of my scientific career.”
The Balloon Model of Expanding Space Clusters of galaxies are represented by pieces of paper on the balloon. As the balloon is blown up its surface area (space) increases with time. The clusters of galaxies do not increase in size. They get further apart but do not move through space.
Abbe George LeMaitre 1920s - shows that GTR, even with the cosmological constant still requires that space either expand or contract. 1930s - reenters cosmology. First to develop a model based on GTR of what the universe would have been like in the past. Father of Big Bang. Most scientists are skeptical in part because LeMaitre is a priest and there are many similiarites between the Big Bang and Genesis.
George Gamow 1948 - Gamow used new knowledge of nuclear physics along with the GTR to describe the early universe. He assumed (like LeMaitre) that the early universe was much hotter and denser than it is today and that the expansion of space cooled it and allowed structures to form. He intended to show how the hot, dense conditions of the early universe could produce all the chemical elements present in the universe today. Gamow with Wolfgang Pauli
Predictions of the Big Bang model • The early universe contained only hydrogen and helium. Because of the expansion of space and its cooling effect, nucleosynthesis only occurred between 3 to 4 minutes after the big bang (A.B.B.) and essentially stopped after helium. • The universe is filled with a background radiation whose temperature is a few degrees above absolute zero. When neutral atoms formed (about 500,000 yrs A.B.B.), the electromagnetic radiation essentially stopped interacting with matter. The expansion of space cooled the radiation from its initial value of about 3000 K to its present low value.
Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle show that elements heavier than helium can be produced in the interiors of stars. The explosive deaths of these stars scatter the elements into the space between the stars and make them available for later generation stars (like our sun).
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson Early 1960s - Penzias and Wilson are hired by Bell Labs to evaluate the performance of the new radio telescope to be used in trans-Atlantic telephone communications. They find a small, unexplained signal regardless of the direction the telescope is pointed. It is not enough to be a problem, but they are curious. 1964 - They become aware that the noise in their telescope is the cosmic background radiation predicted by the Big Bang theory. Bell Labs’ radio telescope.
Early History of the Universe • T = 0 - Big Bang beginning of a hot, dense universe in expanding space. Expansion cools the universe. • T = 10-35 sec A.B.B., Temp = 1027 K - Inflationary period. Matter dominates antimatter. • Temperature is too hot for any structure to exist. Elementary particles - leptons (electrons) and quarks in a sea of photons. • T = 10-5 sec, Temp = 1012 K - Formation of protons and neutrons from quarks. • T = 3 to 4 min, Temp = 109 K - Formation of helium nuclei from protons and neutrons. 94% protons (H nuclei) and 6% He nuclei. • T = 300,000 yrs, Temp = 3000 K - Formation of atoms from electrons and nuclei. Universe becomes neutral and the background radiation is released.
Outline of the History of the Universe • The universe began about 15 billion years ago - the big bang. The early universe was very hot and dense. The amount of space in the universe increased rapidly with time. • The expansion of space cooled the universe and made it less dense. As a result, about 1 million years after the big bang, hydrogen and helium atoms formed. • The force of gravity caused stars and galaxies to form from the hydrogen and helium gas. Some hydrogen and helium was not immediately converted to stars but was left over as interstellar matter.
History (continued) • The elements heavier than helium were produced by nuclear reactions in the interiors of stars. Explosions of dying high-mass stars scattered these elements into interstellar space and they became part of the interstellar matter. • Later generations of stars formed from the interstellar matter. Some had earth-like planets. • The solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago. • Geological, chemical, and biological evolution led to the present diversity of life on earth.
