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Investigating Our Cosmic Origins Hot Science - Cool Talk # 117 Investigating Our Cosmic Origins Dr. Caitlin Casey February 15, 2019 Produced by and for Hot Science - Cool Talks by the Environmental Science Institute. We request that the use of these materials include an acknowledgement of the presenter and Hot Science - Cool Talks by the Environmental Science Institute at UT Austin. We hope you find these materials educational and enjoyable. Investigating our Cosmic Origins The story of three groundbreaking measurements of the Universe’s scale and our place within it Prof. Caitlin M Casey University of Texas at Austin Department of Astronomy & McDonald Observatory @astrocaits Light is our primary tool in astronomy. Maya Astronomy — Mexico c. 250-900 CE accurate accounting of astronomical calendar Astronomy: the Oldest Science Nebra Sky Disk — Germany 1600BCE Ryan Smith Astronomy: the Oldest Science Babylonian Tablet describing Halley’s comet observation 164 BCE Ryan Smith Astronomy: the Oldest Science Antikythera Mechanism — Greece 100-200 BCE Ryan Smith Astronomy: the Oldest Science Su Song’s map of southern celestial pole — China 1100s CE Ryan Smith Astronomy: the Oldest Science Ryan Smith Turning the static, flat sky into the story of our cosmic origins. Three stories from three centuries. Scale of the Solar System Mystery of the Spiral Nebulae A Universe no one predicted 1 2 3 1 Scale of the Solar System Copernicus (early 1500s) The planets orbit the Sun and not the Earth. Length of the year gives planets’ relative distance from the sun. Copernicus (early 1500s) mercury venus earth mars distance planets travel in 2 months Johannes Kepler The planets’ orbits follow a distinct pattern. (early 1600s) The length of a planet’s year squared was found to be equal to its relative distance from the Sun compared to Earth. (saturn, uranus, neptune off-screen) (jupiter) historical estimates of the distance to the Sun distance estimated by (earth radii) Archimedes 10,000 3rd century BCE Aristarchus 380-1,520 3rd century BCE Hipparchus 490 2nd century BCE L Posidonius 10,000 1st century BCE Dsun Ptolemy 1,210 The scale of the Universe was unknown, rooted in our lack of perspective on the solar system. historical estimates on the distance to the sun Geometry of Venus estimated by earth radii Archimedes 10,000 3rd century BCE Aristarchus 380-1,520 3rd century BCE Hipparchus 490 2nd century BCE Posidonius 10,000 1st century BCE Ptolemy 1,210 Christiaan Huygens (1659) 24,000 Jerome Lalande (1771) 24,000 Modern Astronomy 23,455 The scale of the Universe was unknown, rooted in our lack of perspective on the solar system. Transit of Venus (like an eclipse) Venus’ orbit Venus Sun 1631 observed by Horrocks 1639 Captain Cook 1761 Unfortunately these transits do not happen frequently! travels to Tahiti to 1769 measure transit, coordinated in California from two fromtwo spotson pathway pathway Transit Earth View from Earth Not to scale! Not last transit 1874 measured without 1882 modern digital devices 2004 2012 happens in happens Nov 2019! Nov Transit of Transit Mercury Mercury 2117 2125 position of nearby (these stars are star against the much further away) night sky nearby star Stellar Parallax: unlocking the distances to the stars (these stars are much further away) nearby star Stellar Parallax: unlocking the distances to the stars (these stars are much further away) nearby star Stellar Parallax: unlocking the distances to the stars (these stars are much further away) nearby star Stellar Parallax: unlocking the distances to the stars (these stars are much further away) nearby star The more a star “wiggles” on the sky, Dstar the closer it is to Earth. 1 A.U. our eyes give us depth perception due to parallax! Stellar Parallax: unlocking the distances to the stars BRIGHT Stars sorted by brightness by sorted Stars FAINT HOT Stars sorted by temperature COLD Stars were decoded: their lifecycle understood. Stars show chemical signatures of many elements found on earth… Larger stars burn much brighter and hotter and die young… Stars are born together and migrate from their birthplace as they live… Simon Newcomb, President & Founder of the American Astronomical Society "We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy.” -1888 “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” -1902 Edward Pickering and the Harvard “Computers” 1913 Meticulously cataloged every star in the night sky visible through a pair of binoculars. Annie Jump Cannon Henrietta Swan Leavitt Cecilia Payne developed our stellar found a unique set of stars that inferred the true composition of stars as classification scheme, also pulsated and were of special use primarily hydrogen and helium, first a prominent suffragist, to measure intergalactic woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from member of deaf distances, also a member of Harvard (Radcliffe). community. deaf community. Annie Jump Cannon Henrietta Swan Leavitt Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin developed our stellar found a unique set of stars that inferred the true composition of stars as classification scheme, also pulsated, and that the pulsation primarily hydrogen and helium, first a prominent suffragist, period scales directly to woman to earn a PhD in astronomy from member of deaf brightness, also a member of Harvard (Radcliffe). community. deaf community. 2 Mystery of the Spiral Nebulae Not everything in the sky is a star! Figuring out the rest was puzzling. The Great Debate of 1920 sun near the center sun far out from the center milky way galaxy ~30,000 light years across milky way galaxy (the whole universe) Heber Curtis ~300,000 light years across Harlow Shapley Thought that the spiral nebulae were stars forming inside of the galaxy. Measuring distances beyond parallax: standard candles 60 W Faint 30 feet away Measure this “B” Moderately 60 W Know what this (with a telescope) should be “L” Bright 10 feet away Distance to the Bright light source can60 Wbe inferred.3 feet away Measuring distances beyond parallax: standard candles 104 Cepheid Variables established as 103 the best “standard candle” (in suns) (in nearby. 102 Measure period and apparent Luminosity of star of Luminosity 1 3 10 30 100 brightness, get distance. Period of Pulsation (days) Annie Jump Cannon with Henrietta Swan Leavitt The Scale of the Universe comes into focus 1920s: Edwin Hubble uses Leavitt’s standard candles to show that spiral “nebulae” are much more distant than previously imagined: 10’s — 1000’s of times more distant than the farthest part of our Milky Way. An independent survey of the spiral nebulae suggested something odd about their motion… Measuring the motion of objects in the sky: towards us or away from us? The Doppler effect is audible with cars traveling toward/away from us. Redder/bluer than normal light is used for astronomical objects! Redshifted Emitted Distance Blue light! Towards us! Red light! Away from us! Doppler Velocity An independent survey of the spiral nebulae suggested something odd about their motion… Known as “Hubble’s Law.” Vesto Slipher The mind-boggling implications of Hubble’s Law Why is everything receding away from the Milky Way Galaxy? Are we at the center of the universe? Milky Way The mind-boggling implications of Hubble’s Law Why is everything receding away from the Milky Way Galaxy? Are we at the center of the universe? Consider the viewpoint from another galaxy Milky Way From this perspective, all galaxies also appear to be moving away, similar to what we see from the Milky Way. The mind-boggling implications of Hubble’s Law Why is everything receding away from the Milky Way Galaxy? Are we at the center of the universe? Consider the viewpoint from another galaxy Milky Way From this perspective, all galaxies also appear to be moving away, similar to what we see from the Milky Way. The same holds true from all perspectives. Not favored by prominent astronomers of the era: Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi… The Universe is EXPANDING. EXPANDING. EXPANDING. The Big Bang! If you rewind this process, everything was contained in a point ~14 billion years ago…. size of the of the Universe size Einstein’s “Greatest Blunder” cosmic time 3 A Universe no one predicted The Project of the 20th Century: going as far as possible! A brighter standard candle needed… Hubble diagram (1929) 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800 2100 White Dwarf Supernovae (Type Ia) Distance (millions of light years) Emit more than energy than an entire galaxy over the span of a ~day, can be seen halfway across the observable Universe. More distant galaxies? Millions to billions of years… Light from the Light from nearby galaxies Andromeda galaxy takes used to infer cosmic 2 million years (longer expansion has taken several than humans have been 10s-100s of millions of years Light from the around). to reach us (think dinosaurs). nearest star outside of the solar Reflected light system takes 4.3 from Satrun takes years. The Sun’s light ~1 hour. takes ~8 minutes to reach Earth. Supernova Refsdal (so distant it happened 9.4 billion years ago, before the solar system existed.) Maybe the Universe was different in the distant past? Doppler Velocity Doppler Distance Maybe the Universe was different in the distant past? is the expansion slowing down with time? is the slope of Hubble’s Law getting shallower? ? Big Big Bang Crunch? size of the Universe the of size Doppler Velocity Doppler Distance now cosmic time The Project of the 20th Century: going as far as possible! The Universe used to expand 1.5x105 Modern Hubble’s Law at a slower rate, and the expansion is SPEEDING UP. The leaders of these teams won the 2011 3x104 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.
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