THE UNIVERSE AT LARGE Cosmology: Where in the $&#**¢ by VIRGINIA TRIMBLE Being a compilation of tabular and narrative material designed to provide POWERS OF TEN a framework for the more A remarkably delicate balance between the small scale phe- detailed and technical nomena of atomic and nuclear physics and the large scale articles that appear phenomena of astronomy and cosmology is required for the elsewhere in this issue. Universe to be hospitable to chemically based life. Efforts to It can also be used as a prove that this must be so are sometimes dignified by the name “anthropic principle.” My goal here is the much more ready reference resource modest one of indicating where we fit into the range of ob- for when people ask you jects and events. A subsidiary goal is to use common astro- things like: “Are there nomical terms (solar system, galaxy, Local Group, and so forth) so many times in suitable contexts that you will never any other galaxies again have an excuse for forgetting which fits inside which in our solar system?” others. Time, length, and mass are advertised as the most funda- mental physical quantities (though the c = G = 1 relativists and the c = h = 1 particle physicists manage to survive with only one, length or energy). Taking one example of each, we find: • Geometric mean of diameter of atomic nucleus and dis- tance to the nearest star = 14 feet, the height of a dean at a prestigious university • Geometric mean of halflife of excited nucleus and age of the Universe = 2 minutes, upper limit to the time “Is it bigger than a bread you will listen to telephone solicitor box?” (Steve Allen, c. 1954, • Geometric mean of mass of hydrogen atom and mass of What’s My Line?) sun = 60 kg, large dog or small dog owner. 52 FALL 1997 % Universe Are You? Time Scales of Human and Astronomical Phenomena Log t Event (years) The first three tables provide addi- -50 Planck time tional examples of logarithmic steps -9 shortest human reaction time; rotation of Crab Nebula pulsar in length, time and mass that take -8 heart beat after running; QPOs in X-ray binaries us from atomic to astronomical -7 breath after running; core collapse in type II supernova, rotation scales. The units are centimeters, periods of old pulsars years, and grams. Some powers of 10 -6 time you expect to wait when told “just a minute”; most rapid rotation of are missing because I couldn’t think white dwarfs of anything interesting that exists or -5 attention span of freshman physics class; solar oscillations happens on that scale. Suggestions -4 the 50-minute hour; orbit periods of cataclysmic binaries from readers of items to fill the gaps -3 work day; most rapid variability in active galaxies, quasars, etc. would be much appreciated. -2 long weekend; pulsation and orbit periods of moderately compact stars In these days of energy- and binaries consciousness, one ought perhaps to -1 number of days I need in a month; pulsation periods of Cepheid variables; have one more table, of energies or a orbit periods of “hot Jupiters” related quantity. The one shown on 0 length of small NSF contract; orbit period of earth, detectable changes in luminosity of most active galaxies and in pulsation and orbit periods page 55 is called power if you are a of stars and binaries householder and paying for it, or lu- +I lifetime of breadbox; age of SN 1987A, evolution of stars undergoing minosity if you are an astronomer last helium flash and not paying for it. Students in in- +2 age of professor; life of nova shell troductory astronomy courses are al- +3 significant changes in spoken languages; age of Crab Nebula as now ways a little surprised by the enor- seen mity of the answer they find to the +4 neolithic culture (agriculture, cities, pottery, baskets, writing); lifetimes of question: What would it cost you planetary nebulae to keep the sun shining for a year if +5 paleolithic culture, anatomically modern man; ages of youngest detectable protostars and star bursts you had to pay Southern California +6 assorted hominids, earliest tools; lifetime of very massive star Edison Company 12¢ per kilowatt +7 giant mammals; lifetime of progenitor of SN 1987A, lifetimes of pulsars hour to do it? +8 dinosaurs; lifetime of moderate-mass stars, crossing times in dense cores of clusters of stars and galaxies A COOK’S TOUR OF THE +9 single-celled life; relaxation times in dense cluster cores UNIVERSE +9.66 age of solar system The Earth is a planet, and there are +10 lifetime of solar mass star, dynamical time scale of less dense clusters times when one feels that the most +10.2 age of Universe important issue is whether the BEAM LINE 53 capital E and the “the” are forbidden, compulsory, both, or neither. Planets are undoubtedly the most familiar of Sizes of Terrestrial and Celestial Objects and Systems astronomical objects, since most of us have lived on one most of our lives (if there is anyone out there for whom Log l Object (etc.) this is not true, I don’t want to know about it). The nine (cm) planets of our Solar System can be categorized as ter- -33 Planck length restrial or earthlike (meaning made of rocks and met- -13 atomic nucleus (1 fm) -8 Bohr orbit; divide between X-ray and gamma-ray als with at most thin layers of other stuff) and Jovian wavelengths (1 Angstrom) or Jupiterlike (meaning made mostly of gases, especially -4 near infrared wavelengths (1 µm), largest bound inter- hydrogen and helium). The former are Mercury, Venus, stellar atoms Earth, and Mars; the latter Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and -3 magnetic domains Neptune. Pluto is a misfit, possibly related to the moons 0 distance between atoms in interstellar space; rules of thumb of the outer Jovian planets or to the mostly-icy denizens +l small bread box of the Kuiper belt slightly further from the sun. Kuiper +2 distance between atoms in intergalactic space; belt objects are the source of comets with relatively small people, radio waves orbits. The (still unseen) objects that feed into the sup- +3 biggest animals ply of nearly-parabolic comets come from the Oort +4 to 5 biggest buildings and trees +6 tallest mountains, comets, small asteroids, and Cloud. moons; neutron stars, Schwarzschild radii of stellar We now know of a dozen or more planets orbiting oth- mass black holes (approximate division between er stars (Beam Line, Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 31–35), the largest dominance of solid body and gravitational forces) +7 to +8 moderate to big moons and asteroids class of which have masses like the Jovian planets but +9 earth, white dwarfs orbits like the terrestrial ones, and so are called hot +10 Jupiter, brown dwarfs Jupiters by their friends. We expect, but do not know, +11 sun and other main sequence stars that observations will eventually reveal large numbers +12 distance of “hot Jupiters” from parent stars of other planetary systems, both like and unlike ours, +13 sun-earth distance (1 astronomical unit) and that moons, comets, asteroids, meteors, and so forth +15 diameter of Pluto’s orbit, heliosphere will be common features. No comet with an orbit sug- +17 Oort cloud of comet progenitors (limit of solar system) gesting it originally belonged to another star has ever +18 widest bound star pairs; core of dense star cluster +19 diameter of globular star cluster (3 parsecs) been seen. Planets and subplanetary detritus are not a +20 giant molecular cloud major contributor to the mass or luminosity anywhere, +21 width of spiral arm in Milky Way but they are, of course, the only life-bearing entity we +22 thickness of disk of old stars in Milky Way know of. +23 diameter of visible part of Milky Way and other big- The Sun is a star, with a mass (2×1033 g), radius gish galaxies × 10 × 33 +24 diameter of massive halo of Milky Way and other big- (7 10 cm), luminosity (4 10 erg/sec), age (4.55 Gyr), gish galaxies, distance between galaxies in rich cluster heavy element abundance (1.7 percent everything that +25 core of rich cluster of galaxies is not hydrogen or helium), and all the other proper- +26 diameter of rich cluster of galaxies; our distance from ties you can think of, very much in the middle of the Virgo range for stars in general. The extremes of the ranges (for +27 largest scales on which we see structure and stream- ing in the Universe example all stellar masses are between 0.085 and 120 +28 distance light travels in 1010 years (radius of “observ- MO.) are understood in terms of the physics of gravita- able” Universe) tion, electromagnetism, and nuclear reactions, though the distributions through the ranges are not. We also 54 FALL 1997 almost. That we orbit a single star is Masses of Terrestrial A Few Powers and not, therefore, improbable. and Luminosities Celestial Objects Star clusters are the main or only and Systems Log L Object (etc.) sites of star formation (at least here (erg/sec) and now, and probably also there and Log M Object (etc.) (grams) -3 hardworking hydrogen then). The process of a large cloud of atom -27 electron +7 hardworking bread box cold gas collapsing and fragmenting -24 proton (thermal radiation into stellar mass cores is a collective -19 big molecule at room temperature) one, some times triggered by en- -16 small virus +9 human metabolism +10 hardworking horse counters with other clouds, expand- -5 Planck mass ing supernova remnants, or other -3 large cell (not ostrich +22 world energy consump- egg!) tion (very crude) shocks.