The Dynamics of Visible Objects in the Universe

How do we measure distance of these objects ?

Distance Measure  a) Laser beam + mirrors Earth-Moon distance was determined

Stellar Parallax Distance Measure  b) Parallax (a) The geometry of stellar parallax. For observations made 6 months apart, the baseline is twice the Earth—Sun distance, or 2 A.U. (b) The parallactic angle is usually measured photographically (the shift is greatly exaggerated in this drawing).

Stellar Parallax.7” Text Distance to star = 4.4 ly D d(istance) D/d = angle (in radians) Distance Measure  b) Parallax biased for “near-by” objects

Nearest Neighbors A plot of the 30 closest stars to the Sun, projected so as to reveal their three- dimensional relationships. Notice that many are members of multiple-star systems. All lie within 4 pc (about 13 light years) of Earth.

How do we know the dynamics of these objects ?

Phenomenon exhibited by a moving source of light: Doppler effect Which direction is the wave source moving? Blue shift Red shift

Doppler Shift Method: Limitation: wavelength shifts are tiny

Doppler Shift Method: example: star wobbles in response to planet orbiting it observer

Emitted Star Light (intrinsic) Observed Star Light (detected) Doppler Shift of light wavelength stretched  object moving away the observer wavelength compacted  object is moving towards the observer 800 nm400 nm Red Shift Receding “- v”: TOWARD the observed “+v”: AWAY from the observed

“Galaxy Crash” can be loaded from the following website: select option “applet” and then you can specify some parameters of the 2 galaxies whose interactions you would like to model

The Dynamics of Visible Objects in the Universe Key Concepts for Week-4, Class-1: (what You need to know, as You will be tested on this material):  Term “Proxy”  Proxy for distance (mirrors & laser light, parallax)  Proxy for velocity (Doppler Shift Method)  Doppler Shift Phenomenon / Method  Blue shift (moving towards) & Red shift (moving away)  Atomic line spectrum (atomic fingerprint) as an aid for applying Doppler Shift Method  Value of Models in Astronomy

Lesson 8 The Birth of the Universe

Edwin Hubble’s tests reveal “Steady State Theory” of the Universe is Invalid Proxy for velocity  Doppler shift Distance Measurement  Parallax or other more sophisticated methods

Proxy for velocity  Doppler shift Distance Measurement  Parallax or other more sophisticated methods Hubble’s Law states galaxies are moving away from us.

SADLY, HUBBLE DIDN’T REALIZE THE IMPLICATION OF HIS DISCOVERY…

Fall 2007 The Ramifications of Hubble’s Law Monseigneur Georges Lemaître

The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) is Additional Evidence for the Big Bang & Expanding Universe background temperature of the Universe

So, there are 3 lines of evidence for the “Big Bang” Theory Galaxies are moving away from us Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Observed abundance of Helium matches the expectations of Helium based on the Big Bang theory

We Can Visualize this with a Model What are Models? help us visualize aspects of nature that seem fairly abstract & build intuition Models provide a conceptual framework for interpreting the data we collect. They help us understand what is happening in the otherwise (to us) invisible world.

Exploring Hubble’s Law Balloon Activity

Tips before you start: Don’t place marks too close to the neck or far end of the balloon - it doesn’t stretch uniformly in these areas Blow the balloon up as much as reasonably possible! Measure the distance between points along the shortest path When done, add your data points to the plot on the board. Each group use a different type of symbol/color so we can distinguish the data sets. Modeling the Big Bang and the Expansion of the Universe with a Balloon

How is it a good model? How is it a bad model? Are there better models?

Modeling the Big Bang and the Expansion of the Universe with a Balloon How is it a good model? -it produces an expansion law qualitatively similar to Hubble's Law, in that the velocity of expansion (with respect to the origin) is proportional to distance (from the origin) - it shows that no matter where you draw the origin (i.e., no matter your location), you will always observe that all points are moving away from YOU

Modeling the Big Bang and the Expansion of the Universe with a Balloon How is it a bad model? The balloon is finite The surface of the balloon is only 2-dimensional + curved The marks drawn on the balloon also expand (they shouldn’t, as galaxies are held by gravity) The balloon may not expand uniformly (especially if not inflated fully)

Modeling the Big Bang and the Expansion of the Universe with a Balloon rising loaf of bread better, since the raisins (“galaxies”) don’t expand as loaf expands Another model

This plot can be thought of as a calibrating relationship for using velocity as a proxy to measure distance Velocity is proportional to distance

What does it mean that distance and velocity are proportional? Can we trace the expansion back to the point where it began? If the Universe is expanding, does that also mean that the Galaxy and the Solar system are expanding?

balloon is stretched (multiplicatively) by some factor - we need to think of the Universe the same way that “point” is now the whole balloon/whole Universe... so no. What does it mean that distance and velocity are proportional? Can we trace the expansion back to the point where it began? If the Universe is expanding, does that also mean that the Galaxy and the Solar system are expanding? no, they are bound by gravity - they represent parts of the Universe that have been gravitationally extracted (for now) from the initial expansion

What is the importance of Hubble’s law? Universe expands, changes over time Universe had a beginning in time: observable Universe is finite – we can measure its age! once relationship is established, it can be used as an easy way to measure distances to galaxies

Think to the sinusoidal wave drawn on the balloon… wavelengths get stretched longer wavelength radiation becomes more red

Galaxy voids and Galaxy Clusters Expansion competes with gravity: galaxies = places where gravity “wins” voids = places where expansion “wins”

The Birth of the Universe Key Concepts for Week-4, Class-2: (what You need to know, as You will be tested on this material):  Hubble’s Diagram & Hubble’s Law  The significance of Hubble’s constant (inverse time)  Implications behind Hubble’s Law  Big Bang Theory  Evidence for Big Bang Theory  Recall modeling the expansion of the Universe with Balloons  (recall good & bad aspects of this model).