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Cosmology Astronomy 315 Professor Lee Carkner Lecture 22 "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." -- Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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Upcoming Extra Credit Events Thursday, May 4, 7pm, Olin Auditorium Kjell Lundquist “Stars Above, Stars Below and Stars Within: On Tycho Brahe, Uraniborg and a Garden Reconstruction” Saturday, May 6, Planetarium Planetarium Open House Will receive 10 points extra credit on the observing project for each you go to (up to a maximum of 20 points) See me there to sign in
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Exercise #21 Supernova Type Ia supernova with flux = 1X10 -17 J/s/m 2 All type Ia supernova have luminosity = 1.5X10 36 J/s F = L/4 d 2 4 d 2 F = L d 2 = L/4 F d = (1.5X10 36 /[(4)( )(1X10-17)]) ½ How long ago did supernova occur? 1 light year = 9.5X10 15 Supernova happened 11.5 billion years ago
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Key Questions Is the universe infinite? If the universe is not infinite: How and when did it begin? Where and what are its boundaries?
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Caution We shouldn’t think of the universe as just being a larger ordinary thing We will often use analogy to get an idea of what the universe is like, but we shouldn’t take it literally
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Types of Universes Static Infinite in time Static and Infinite Infinite in Space Universe extends endlessly in all directions
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Infinite? The universe is not infinite in space or time If the universe was infinite, everywhere you look you would see a star Universe must be finite in space (run out of stars) or in time (light from some stars hasn’t reached us yet)
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Olber’s Paradox
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Static? The universe is not static The universe is getting larger The universe changes and evolves
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Expansion We see all galaxies moving away from us, the most distant ones moving faster How are distance and velocity related? This is the Hubble Law: As the universe is stretching, the space between each galaxy increases, making them look as if they were moving
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Raisin Bread
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Geometry What is the universe expanding into? Not just matter, but spacetime is expanding Speed of light is absolute limit The universe may be finite but unbounded Like the surface of a balloon
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The Big Bang The universe was hotter and denser in the past Called a hot Big Bang Big Bang is a process, not an event
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The Cosmic Microwave Background The early universe was very hot and thus filled with high energy radiation This is detectable with radio telescopes as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) CMB is a blackbody with a temperature of about 3 K
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Cosmic Blackbody Spectrum
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After the Big Bang The early universe was an extremely strange place As universe cooled, our present universe took shape After about a billion years the material started to clump together to form stars and galaxies Early universe must have been non-uniform for this to happen
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Structure of the Universe
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The Age of the Universe We can find the age of the universe by extrapolating backwards Since v = d/t, t = d/v, but H = v/d, so: If we can find H, we can easily get the age of the universe For H = 73, age = 13.7 billion years
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History of the Universe
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The Fate of the Universe How will the universe end? Depends on if their enough mass in the universe to gravitationally halt the expansion Three options: Open Closed Flat Universe just barely expands
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End States of the Universe
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Dark Energy Some force is resisting gravity’s attempts to slow the expansion Best candidate is energy stored in the fabric of spacetime Dark energy and dark matter may be principle components of the universe
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Possible Expansion Scenarios
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End of the Universe The best observations indicate: Dark energy is trying to increase the expansion of the universe Universe is effectively infinite in time in the forward direction Beginning but no end
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The End The universe may eventually die a heat death Left with white dwarfs, neutron stars and radiation Can live off of compact objects, but eventually will convert them all to heat
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Next Time No class Friday Quiz #3 on Monday Covers everything since Quiz #2 (plus Milky Way) Lectures 16-22 Same format as other quizzes
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