Unit 4: Astronomy Lesson 1: The Early Universe Science 9H Unit 4: Astronomy Lesson 1: The Early Universe
Objectives By the end of the lesson you should be able to: Describe the role Hubble played in our current understanding of the universe Explain how the red shift analysis works Describe the Big Bang Theory and its supporting evidence
The Universe Prior to 100 yrs ago we believed that the universe was unchanging Between 1918-1929 more powerful telescopes were created and we could see more celestial bodies
Edwin Hubble First astronomer to identify other galaxies besides the Milky Way In 1929 he estimated the distance from Earth to 46 other galaxies He noticed that all the galaxies were moving away from each other! AND, that their speed varied depending on their distance from each other!
Hubble’s Proposal The universe is expanding in all directions and it has taken the galaxies the same amount of time to get to their current location from the starting point.
Raisin Loaf Model
But how?? Stars and galaxies emit different types of EMS waves Hubble used his knowledge of the EMS (electromagnetic spectrum) Stars and galaxies emit different types of EMS waves
Spectral Patterns Recall that a prism refracts white light into a rainbow A spectroscope does the same thing using light from galaxies and stars It produces a spectrum. Each galaxy has its own unique spectrum with spectral lines produced by the elements within it
Red Shift Unmoving Red Shifted: moving away from Earth Blue Shifted: moving towards Earth
But where did the expansion start? The Big Bang Theory: An unimaginably tiny volume of space rapidly expanded to a huge size This happened very very quickly It formed all the matter in the universe
Evidence #1 Cosmic Background Radiation Discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1963 Monitored microwaves but kept hearing noise Made some adjustments but it wouldn’t go away Determined they were hearing the radiation left over from the Big Bang
Evidence #2 COBE: Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite launched by NASA in 1989 Red = warm areas Blue = cooler areas
Evidence #3 WMAP: Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe Sent by NASA in 2001 Blue = more dense Red = less dense
Your Turn! Lab 10-1C pg 353