1. What is it and how did it all begin?
Universe Creation
What is it and how did it all begin?

2. The Universe
Milky way galaxy is part of 20 other galaxies.

3. Solar System
Sun is a star – hot ball of plasma that shines because of nuclear fusion taking place
Nulcei of atoms fusing together to make larger atoms.
AU – Astronomical Unit
Distance between sun and earth (150 million km)
Light years (ly) = AU or 9.0 x 1012 km
Inner Solar system
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Outer Solar system
Asteroid belt (3AU) and 4 giant gas planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

4. Stars
Supernova – exploding stars after millions or billions of years of build up of heavy elements at the stars core
Nebula – large cloud of dust and gas that remains after a supernova.
About 1 supernova a week is determined by humans

5. Properties of Galaxies
Black Holes – region of space in every galaxy where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape
Dark Matter – matter in the universe that is invisible because it does not interact with light or any other type of radiation
Instead of the Milky way spinning out matter and coming apart, it is being kept together by the gravitational force of an enormous amount of matter that we can not see directly.

6. Expanding Universe
Big Bang – universe formed when an infinitely dense point suddenly and rapidly expanded in a single moment.
Spectral lines – created as each gas that makes up a star absorbs some of the light energy

7. Expanding Universe
All other galaxies are moving further away at a faster and faster rate.
Animation
Red Shift vs.
Blue Shift
Cosmic Background Radiation – short waved gamma radiation shifting to x-rays, infrared and microwaves…discovered in 1965
It is now commonly accepted that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old