Preface to Chapter 1: “Artistic Qualities of the Universe” (Qualities that exist but can’t be measured scientifically”

“Artistic Qualities of the Universe” Order ….. Symmetry ….. Beauty

Artistic Qualities of the Universe Order: “We live in a hierarchical Universe”

Artistic Qualities of the Universe Order: Great minds of the Renaissance believed in an orderly Universe and that certain laws must underly that order.

Artistic Qualities of the Universe What order? Elements – molecules – people, planets, stars galaxies – clusters of galaxies – superclusters

Artistic Qualities of the Universe Symmetry: The Universe exhibits repetitive patterns (Atoms resemble solar systems) (The macroverse resembles the microverse)

3-D Large Scale Structure of the Universe

Artistic Qualities of the Universe Beauty: The Universe is beautiful

Astronomy 04 The Solar System Chapter 1 “The Scale of the Cosmos”

Earth, the Terrestrial Planets & Pluto

The Planets of the Solar System

The Sun and Planets

Red Giant & Supergiant Stars

Scales of Size and Time Astronomy deals with objects on a vast range of size scales and time scales. Most of these size and time scales are way beyond our every-day experience. Astronomers use numbers that are so big that it is convenient to write them using scientific notation.

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” Example of Scientific Notation: 6 10 = 10 X 10 X 10 X 10 X 10 X 10 = 1,000,000 6 X 10 = 6 X 1,000,000 = 6 million Scientific notation is an easy way to write big or small numbers.

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” What is your “cosmic address”? John Doe Earth Solar System Milky Way Galaxy Local Group Virgo Supercluster Universe

Moons (Satellites of the planets) The Earth is one of eight planets which travel around a star we call the Sun. The Sun and eight planets form the Solar System. Other types of objects orbit the Sun and are part of the Solar System: Kuiper Belt Objects (Pluto) Moons (Satellites of the planets) Asteroids Comets Meteoroids

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” In the Solar System distances are usually measured in miles, kilometers or astronomical units. One astronomical unit (A.U.) is 93,000,000 miles or the average distance from Earth to the Sun.

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” The largest object in the Solar System is the Sun. Our Sun is an average star. Our Sun and all of the stars we see in the night sky and many more we can’t see form a huge, spiral, disk-shaped object we call the Milky Way Galaxy. This is a Hubble Space Telescope picture of a distant galaxy that resembles the Milky Way Galaxy.

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” The Milky Way galaxy is about 75,000 light-years in diameter and may contain 100 billion stars. Galaxies range from 1,500 to over 300,000 light-years in diameter.

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” When we talk about distances in our galaxy we use a new unit called the light-year. One light-year is the distance light, traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, travels in a year – 6 trillion miles. (63,000 A.U.) The nearest star -Proxima Centauri- is 4.2 light-years away.

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” Galaxies are organized into clusters of galaxies. The Milky Way Galaxy belongs to the Local Group.

The Local Group

Chapter 1: “The Scale of the Cosmos” Clusters of galaxies are organized into superclusters of galaxies. The Local Group of galaxies is a member of the Virgo Supercluster

The Virgo Supercluster

Galaxies, galaxies everywhere - as far as the Hubble Space Telescope can see. This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is the deepest visible-light image of the cosmos.

3-D Large Scale Structure of the Universe