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Lecture 2: Cosmic Calendar Lecture 3

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Lecture 2: Cosmic Calendar Lecture 3 LLeeccttuurree 11:: OOuurr CCoossmmiicc AAddddrreessss Local supercluster SCI 199Y second term: Local group 60 million Milky Way galaxycontains Astronomy @ the Frontiers light-years ~100 billion stars 14 billion 2.5 million 28,000 light-years light-years light-years Universe contains Prof. Yanqin Wu ~100 billion galaxies Earth Solar system (not to scale) 1) Review last term and connection to this term 0.04 light-seconds 2) technical details 8 light-minutes 3) Measuring distances – the universe is expanding! LLeeccttuurree 22:: CCoossmmiicc CCaalleennddaarr LLeeccttuurree 33:: TThhee January February March April SScciieennccee ooff 1 Big Bang AAssttrroonnoommyy May June July August Loop: you can never 1 Milky Way Loop: you can never born prove a hypothesis, you can only disprove (“falsify”) it September October November December 9 Solar system 2 Oldest rocks 1 Sex invented 1 Oxygen in air A scientific statement born known 12 Oldest fossil 17 Cambrian is falsifiable. 14 Earth forms 9 Oldest fossils plant 27 Jurassic 25 First life on (bacteria/blue- 15 Eukaryotes 30 Dinos extinct Earth? green algae) flourish 31 ... Next slide n o o M e h t f o s Seasons e s a h P LLaawwss ooff GGrraavviittyy LIGHT: wave/particle M M F =G 1 2 g d 2 M 1 M 2 d 2M2 2d wavelength energy Spectrum TTeelleessccooppeess Atmosphere not transparent at all wavelengths; for all but visible and radio, need to go up! e IInstantnstant QQuuiziz:: e r WhWhaatt keekeeppss tthehe SuSunn shshiningining?? r u u t t a a r r On fire? 1 hand up r On fire? 1 hand up r e e Too little energy a a l l p p l Contracting? 2 hands up l e e m m t Sun older than 25 million years t e e S t Nuclear fusion? 1 hand on head S t Nuclear fission? 2 hands on head Too few heavy elements Instant Quiz: SSWhttaat rrdi dss Cttuuarlff ffSagan mean AA lliiffee ooff aa ssttaarr when he said we are all “Star stuff”? --- Protracted battle with gravity To support weight: Life would be impossible without the Sun 1 hand up ⇒ need high pressure ⇒ need high temperature Earth formed together ⇒ will loose energy with the Sun 2 hands up ⇒ need energy source: - Gravitational contraction Many elements essential to - Nuclear fusion life were created in stars 1 hand on head Ultimately, The Sun and planets formed Running out of nuclear from stuff between stars 2 hands on head fuel and thermal support... Life of a star like the Sun Mass ~1.4 M⊙ Radius ~10 km Density ~1015 g/cm3 Escape Velocity ~½c Some stars have supernova explosions and become White dwarf neutron stars SSoommee eenndd aass BBllaacckk hhoolleess Results of short presentation & term-test posted Advice from Prof. van Kerkwijk: RREADEAD YYOOUURR TEXTBOTEXTBOOOKK!! Space-time Singularity This term: Long presentations: by combining presentations and lectures, we will investigate: 1) hand in power-point file the Friday before 1) the universe is currently expanding 2) graded by lecturer (50%) + fellow students (50%) 2) what is the beginning of the universe and the beginning of time 3) what causes it to expand (and its building blocks...) 3) how to make a winning presentation – see website 4) zoom back to our neighbourhood – the Solar System 4) READ YOUR TEXTBOOK! we will end with practical issues that affect our daily lives Term Test How far are they? 1) April 8th, in-class 2) multiple choice + short essays 3) both lectures and long presentations Measuring Distances.... 4) READ YOUR TEXTBOOK! Distance to the Moon Apollo missions placed reflectors TThhee lliigghhtt--yyeeaarr on the lunar surface Distance light travels in 1 year Speed of light: 300,000 km/s Hence, 1 light-year is about 10 trillion km 1.3 light-seconds (10,000,000,000,000 km) (~ 384,000 km) Apollo 11 took ~ 1 week to arrive light-second, light-hour Nothing in our universe travels faster than light (Einstein). Your friends are not what they appear to be.... Distance to the Sun Voyager spacecraft (1977 -- ) Astronomical Unit 1 AU ~ 8 light minutes Currently at 100AU (~13 l.h), feeling the insterstellar wind... Mercury: 0.39AU Human speed: 1m/s run Venus: 0.7AU for 80 years --> 17% of a AU Earth: lucky distance ... Pluto: 39AU (~ 5 light hours) Compared to Pluto, Our nearest stellar neighbour How much further are the nearest stars? Proxima: 4.3 light years 5.5 light-hours =0.0006 light-year How do we know? m m e e t t s s y y S S About 5 times further 1 hand up r r a About 100 times further 2 hands up a About 100 times further 2 hands up l l o o About 10,000 times further stop sign S S How do we measure distances to stars? Parallax -- the same way as you do in your everyday life... Tycho (naked-eye observation) fails to see any parallax as you are sitting in a moving car, – he inferred that the Earth does not go closer objects (light-poles, cyclists) move from left to right very fast, around the Sun. while far away objects appear relatively fixed in position. The spaceship 'Earth' does this moving for us. But stars are much, much further than Tycho can imagine. F. Bessel (1784-1845) first discovered parallax 0.314 arcsecond (size of a bacteria at arm's length) for star 61 Cygni, translates to ~ 10 l.y. d 1AU OOuurr CCoossmmiicc AAddddrreessss Local supercluster 100 10 times times Local group 60 million 100 Milky Way galaxy light-years times 14 billion 2.5 million 28,000 light-years light-years light-years Universe 100 million times Earth Solar system (not to scale) 1 million times Parallax method fails for objects very far 0.04 light-seconds (current limit: ~ 1000 l.y.) 8 light-minutes Have to resort to other means for larger distances... The ladder for distance measurements Measuring local distances: radar ranging parallax Measuring cosmic distances: standard candles (Cepheids, supernova...) Hubble's expansion law Supernova 1054AD: Supernova: a star explodes at the end of its life the last time we had a nearby (6300 l.y.) supernova SN1999BE when this occurs, an individual star can outshine an entire galaxy (100 billion stars) ... no warning... M1 by Ricky Murphy Supernova 1054AD: the “Guest Star” Standard Candles: From the Sung-hui-yao [Essentials of the Sung dynasty history] (Chapter 52) If all supernovae are intrinsically equally bright, "On the 1st year of the Chih-ho reign period, 7th month, 22nd day the further-away ones will appear dimmer. [August 27, 1054] ... Yang Wei-te said 'I humbly observe that a guest star has appeared. Above the star in question there is a faint glow, yellow in colour. If one carefully examines the prognostications concerning the From this, we obtain distances to far-away galaxies emperor, the interpretation is as follows: The fact that the guest star does not trespass against Pi and its brightness is full means that there is a person of great worth. I beg that this be handed over to the Bureau of Historiography'. All the Officials presented their congratulations and the Emperor ordered --- if we stare, stare, stare... that it be sent to the Bureau of Historiography. “It was visible in daytime, like Venus... Altogether it was visible in daytime for 23 days." SN1987A And Arizona Indians? Edwin Hubble discovered Expansion of the Universe (1920s) Hubble Space Telescope (1990 - ) The Hubbl e const ant : H ~ 2 0 km/ s/ Ml . y. a gal axy at 1 Ml y i s r ecedi ng at 2 0 km/ s . 2 Ml y . 4 0 km/ s . 1 0 Ml y . 2 0 0 km/ s . 1 0 Gl y . 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 km/ s d Doppler shift e e p s g n i d speed of l i ght km s = 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 / e c e R Obtained using y x standard candles a l a g galaxy distance from us d d l l e e i i F F p p dee dee ra ra lt lt U U e e bl bl b b u u H H Field Field Field Field p p p p ee ee ee ee rad rad rad rad lt lt lt lt U U U U e e e e bl bl bl bl b b b b u u u u H H H H ~13 billion lys The Hubbl e const ant : H ~ 2 0 km/ s/ Ml y The universe was smaller yesterday than it is today. a gal axy at 1 Ml y, r ecedi ng at a r at e of 2 0 km/ s, i s r i ght up t o us at a di st ant past ( t ) At some point in the past, the universe t ~ di st ance/ speed is just a point. ~ 1 Ml y/ ( 2 0 km/ s) ~ 1 3 . 7 Gyr s expansi on r at e of t he uni ver se, ==> age of t he uni ver se Importance of Hubble's Law How old is the Universe? 1929: Hubble discovers that the further away Measuring distance using Hubble's law: a galaxy is, the faster it receded from us. by measuring how fast a galaxy is receding away from us (redshift), This implies the Universe is expanding. we can obtain its distance from us. 1997/8: teams led by Perlmutter and Schmidt find that the expansion is accelerating. 2000: a team led by De Bernardis & Lange Tells the age of the universe (~ 14 billion yrs): finds the Universe is not curved Dividing distance by speed, we find that all galaxies were at the using Balloon measurements of the microwave background.
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