Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 1 Spacetime and Einstein 1905: Clerk in Patent Office Grand Old Man! Schoolboy

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 2 Einstein's Three Great Discoveries 1.He verified the existence of “atoms” by explaining the zig-zag motion of pollen grains in water, noticed 80 years earlier. 1.He proved that light could be understood as little “bullets” of energy (or particles). 2.He developed the theory of relativity, in which “moving” observers disagree about simple measurements like time and distance. Discovery #3 showed that space and time are mixed up... something that even today seems pretty weird.

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 3 Question: If we disagree about measurements, what can we agree on? Answer: The speed of light is the same for everyone! Some “unintended” consequences: From your point of view moving things seem: But the speeds have to be very big to make much difference. You can go faster and faster but never ever reach the speed of light! Space and time get mixed up... Spacetime! Shorter Slower Heavier

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 4 4 MILES Fermilab’s Accelerator pushes protons to: x (speed of light) (This is about 186,000 miles per second!) Every second, they go around the 4-mile ring about 50,000 times! The protons: Seem 1000 times heavier. Seem 1000 times thinner. Have clocks that run 1000 times slower.

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 5 Space & time are bent, or curved, by matter. This is gravity. Planets, moons and baseballs go “as straight as they can.”

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 6 May 29, 1919 The eclipse that changed the universe... And proved Einstein right! Space is bent by Sun’s gravity!

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 7 Space is bent by matter. Multiple images (like ripples on a pond) Same Galaxy See it twice!

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 8 hydrogen neon Spectral lines - Cosmic Barcodes

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 9 Blue shift Red shift eeeeyaooww!! (Object moving away) (Object moving toward)

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 10 A tiny spot from the Hubble Space Telescope Every blob is a galaxy with ~100,000,000,000 stars. BIG BANG 13.5 billion years ago But not BIG, TINY ! All are rushing away from us, RED SHIFT... expanding Universe! Dr. Hubble (Wheaton) discovered that.

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 11 Extrasolar Planets Graphic of the Neptune-Mass companion to GJ 436 exoplanets.org/neptune_web/neptune_graphics.html SPEED TO/FROM US TIME  Artist’s impression

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 12 The Cosmological Constant Einstein’s greatest blunder... or perhaps his greatest legacy? a case for the accelerating Universe

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 13 Black Holes From Astronomy Picture of the Day The Black Hole is invisible, but you can see stuff around it.

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 14 Hubble Uncovers Dust Disk Around a Massive Black Hole

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 15 Black hole candidate in the spiral galaxy

Space, Time and Dr. Einstein 16