THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE A documentary on some of the controversial issues in modern astronomy and cosmology. Script by: Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson Scientific advisor: Richard Thompson 1 Outline of main topics covered: L Introduction to the idea of the expanding univeFse. 4 Introduction to the idea of cosmic redshlfts. ,,·, The measurement of galactic distances. 1 ,'~ 4. Galaxies and quasars with anomalous redshifts--the observations of Halton Arp. 16 Discussion of Hubble's constant. J.P. Vigier's observations and hIS tired light theory. B. Anomalous features of quasars--the observations of V.P. Vat'·shni. II :31 Quantized red shifts--the observations of William Tifft. lO. Section on radioastronomy. 11. K.I. Kellerman on some of the limitations of radioastronomy .. 45 12. The big bang and the cosmic background radiation. .47 The paradox of anisotropy. " !:.i() 14. Alternative explanations for the cosmic blackbody radiation. 54 15. CDnclusion. Theme music (synthesizer Theme image of night sky music a la Brian Enol. with moon and stars moving majestically. NARRATOR (OFF CAMERAl: SPECIAL EFFECT: The motion Gazing at the moon and stars of the moon and stars, etc. is in the night sky, people have accelerated so that they move always wondered about the majestically at a clearly origins and nature of the visible rate. universe. NARRATOR (ON CAMERAJ: Sun rises majestically in Where did it all come from? theme image. Narrator on These days most people will camera in forest location, answer with some version possibly with Mt. Palomar or of the Big Bang theory. Mt. Wilson observatory in background, or perhaps the Goldstone deep space dish. This is the. standard setting. STUDENTS and PROFESSORS Students and professors in explain their idea of the university setting. These origin of the universe by the professors are not big bang, in accordance with professional astronomers; they physical laws and chance. show that the big bang theory has been asccepted as truth by many intellectuals. NARRATOR (ON CAMERAl: What Narrator in standard exactly is the Big Bang setting. theory? NARRATOR (OFF CAMERAJ: SPECIAL EFFECT: Graphic BaSically it's the idea, put presentation of the big bang. forward by many SCientists, First a brilliant sphere of that in the beginning, or white light expands. Then the before the beginning, if you light winks out, revealing a will, all matter in the mass of glowing specks flying universe was concentrated into apart from each other. Zoom in an infinitly small volume at on the specks. We see that an infinitly high temperature they are diffuse clouds and pressure. And then, forming into galaxies of the according to the story, it pinwheel type. Show stars 3 exploded with tremendous forming in galaxies and force. From this explosion planets forming around stars. rushed a super-heated ionized gas or plasma. This plasma expanded uniformly until it cooled sufficiently to form ordinary gas. Within this cooling cloud of expanding gas formed galaxies, and within the galaxies took birth gener­ ations of stars. In turn planets such as our own earth formed around the stars. NARRATOR CON CAMERA]: The Narrator in standard setting. big bang theory seems to have captured the minds of people Then SPECIAL EFFECTS: everywhere. Why? One possible (1) Clips from tv shows on reason is that its supporters big bang spiraling in. have unleashed an (2) Motion graphics of unprecedented explosion of big magazine articles about the bang propaganda in the form of big bang, spiraling in from a high tech television programs, distance, becoming larger, flashy magazine articles, and leaving a trail of images. well-illustrated popular books. In classrooms around the world teachers present the big bang as the only possible explanation of how the universe and everything in it came to be. NARRATOR CON CAMERAJ: The Narrator in standard message comes across loud and setting. clear. The universe is expanding, and everything must have been together at one point in the beginning. INTRODUCTION TO THE IDEA OF THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE. NARRATOR [OFF CAMARA): But SPECIAL EFFECT: Display the here's a fact few people theme image with accelerated realize. Even with the most motion of stars and the moon, powerful telescopes it is not and then zoom in on a region possible to actually see stars of the sky to show some and galaxies moving away from galaxies. Whereas the movement us. The images we see are of the moon and stars was static, and scientists would clearly noticable, the picture not expect them to show of the galaxies will be visible motion, even if static. 4 observations could go on for centuries. NARRATOR COFF CAMARAJ: SPECIAL EFFECT: First a So how do we really know cartoon-like image of a person the universe is expanding? on the earth looking up at All we have to go on is the incoming light that seems to light and other kinds of originate just above his head. radiation that travel to us Then a model of the from across the reaches of structures producing the light interstellar space. Images appears overhead. This model formed from this radiation do might be in dotted lines to not directly show universal emphasize its theoretical expansion, but subtle features natLlre. of the radiation have convinced scientists that this expansion is taking place. What scientists do is first assume that the earthly laws of physics apply without change throughout the universe. They then try to figure out how processes obeying these laws could produce the observed light. NARRATOR CON CAMERAJ: To Narrator in standard understand how scientists have setting. used this way of analyzing light to conclude that the universe is expanding, we go back into the history of astronomy and astrophysics. NARRATOR CON CAMERAJ Early pictures of spiral Examining the heavens, nebulae. astronomers long ago observed that in addition to individual stars and planets there were many faintly glowing bodies in the sky. They called them nebulae, a Latin word meaning "clouds," and later on, as their conceptions evolved, they called them galaxies. NARRATOR COFF CAMARAJ: Focus on the cloudy patch Larger than the full moon in of sky that is the Andromeda the night sky, yet hardly galaxy and increase the visible to the unaided eye intensity of it for visual because it is so dim, is the effect, near the moon if 5 nearby galaxy Andromeda. In possible. This will develop the early part of this into an elliptical patch of century, astronomers turned light about six times as long powerful new telescopes on as the diameter of the full this and other galaxies, and moon. found they appeared to be vast Then gradually begin to islands of billions of stars. magnify the image until it becomes a spiral island of billions of stars. NARRATOR (OFF CAMARAJ: At Photo of galaxy clusters. further distances are found entire clusters of galaxies. Until the discovery of stars in Andromeda, it was generally thought that all celestial bodies were located within the boundaries of our local Milky Way galaxy. But with this development and the discovery of other more distant galaxies all that was changed. The dimensions of the universe expanded beyond comprehension. NARRATOR (OFF CAMARAJ: This The standard map of the photo shows the galaxies that galaxies in the northern have been discovered in the hemi sphere. northern galactic hemisphere. It is estimated that detectable galaxies may number in the hundreds of billions. NARRATOR CON CAMERAJ: Up Narrator in standard until the early part of this setting. century, scientists believed the basic objects in the universe to be static in relation to each other. NARRATOR (OFF CAMARAJ: Then Photo of Slipher. (Did he in 1913, the American do his work at Lowell astronomer Vesto Melvin Observatory in Flagstaff Slipher came to study the Arizona? If so we could shoot spectra of light coming from a there. J dozen prominent nebulae and concluded that they were movi ng away from the earth a,t speeds of up two million miles per hour. 6 NARRATOR [OFF CAMARA]: How Prism dividing light ihto did Slipher reach this different colors. astonishing conclusion? For some time astronomers had been using spectrographic analysis to determine the elements present in the stars. A spectroscope is a device that contains a prism or diffraction grating. We're all familiar with the fact that sunlight focused through a prism will divide into a spectrum of colors like the rainbow. This happens because the prism is separating the white light into its various wavelengths. NARRATOR [ON CAMERA]: A Narrator in classroom with spectroscope operates on the spectroscope and charts same principle. Each element representing the spectra of leaves a particular iron. characteristic set of lines in the spectrum. In this example the light lines at the top represent the spectral lines of iron. The corresponding dark lines in the spectrum below show the presence of iron in this particular star. INTRODUCTION TO THE IDEA OF COSMIC RED SHIFTS. NARRATOR: Slipher noticed Spectra showing a red shift that in the spectra of for calcium. galaxies he studied, the lines for certain elements were shifted toward the red part of the spectrum. This curious phenomenon is called a "red shift." These spectra are from two different stars. In this first example we have used an arrow to mark the position of the two readily identifiable lines for calcium. Notice how in the spectrum for the second star, there is a similar pair of 7 lines, but they are shifted towards the right. NARRATOR CON CAMERAJ: Narrator in standard Slipher interpreted the red setting. shift as a Doppler effect indicating the galaxies were moving away. This was the first major step toward the idea that the entire universe is expanding.