The Universe’s BIG questions 1. How do we know what’s out there? 2. Is there life elsewhere? 3. Where did the universe come from?

How we know distances How we know what things are made of How we know motions NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope European Space Agency Kepler Telescope (planned) Southern African Large Telescope Very Large Telescope In Chile

Nearest stars D=10 to 1000 light years

Our solar system (vastly oversized) Center of Milky Way D=25,000 light years

Andromeda Galaxy D=1 million light years

Clusters of galaxies D=100 million light years

Most distant galaxies (edge of observable universe) D=13 billion light years

Is there life elsewhere?

100 Billion stars in the Milky Way 100,000,000 If 1/10 have planets -> 10,000,000 systems with planets If 10 planets per system -> 100,000,000 planets! If 1/100 have planets with right conditions -> 1,000,000 possible planets If 1/100 actually have life develop -> 10,000 possible planets with life? ? We simply don’t know yet.

Where did the Universe come from? Chance? Or Purpose?

In the beginning, the Lord God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep. Then God said “Let there be light”, and there was light. And God saw the the light was good. … And God saw everything that he had made, and it was very good. - Book of Genesis, 4000 B.C. The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hand. – Book of Psalms, 2000 B.C. There is a thing confusedly formed, born before heaven and earth, silent and void, it stands alone and does not change. I know not its name, so I style it ‘the way’’. I give it the Makeshift name of “The Great’’. - China, 500 B.C. In the beginning, the heavens and the earth were still one, and all was chaos. The universe itself was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself….Pan Gu awoke…took up a broad ax to crack open the egg. … When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind, is voice the thunder. One eye became the moon, the other the sun. - China (ca. 200 ) ….several Hindu creation stories…. and in some traditions, the universe is timeless, without beginning or end.

Time ago 13 Billion yr 12 Billion yr 8 Billion yr Present

Augustine In the beginning were created only the germs or causes of the forms of life….

Johannes Kepler “…Oh God, I am thinking thy thoughts after thee.”

James Clerk Maxwell And God said….  · B= 0  x B =  0 J +  0  0  E/  t  · E = 1/  0   x E = -  B/  t …and there was light.

Blaise Pascal Who will follow these marvelous processes? The Author of these wonders understands them…Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been allotted to me…?

Steven Hawking “Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? …. What breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”