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Published byChester Ray Modified over 9 years ago
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Deep Extragalactic Space The basic “yardstick” of distance is now the Megaparsec = 3.3 million light years Question: how do we determine the distances to such remote objects?
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Examples of extremely distant clusters of galaxies You can’t see Cepheids that far out
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The Hubble Relation for Galaxies Galaxies in all directions receding from us The more distant they are, the faster they are receding v=H 0 d v = speed of recession (km/sec), d= distance (Mpc), H 0 “Hubble Constant”, (km/sec/Mpc), H 0 = 70 km/sec/Mpc
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The Hubble Relation for Galaxies If you measure the redshift, you know the distance
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With measurements of distances, you can map out the distribution of galaxies
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What is the meaning of Hubble’s Law? Are we at the center of the universe and everything is moving away from us? True analogy: observer on an expanding jungle gym The universe is expanding Hubble’ Law was the beginning of the science of cosmology
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First, let’s examine some of the variety in the hundreds of thousands of galaxies that have been examined
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An interlude…Radio Astronomy…will make sense later “To remind you of what you already know….” Radio astronomy = study of universe with EM waves having wavelength from about 1 millimeter to 50 meters Comparison: optical astronomy studies wavelengths between 4E-07 to 7E-07 meters
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The Radio Sky Radio sources – many associated with giant elliptical galaxies
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A region 2 degrees square at RA=23h, Dec=20d. The sky at 21cm wavelength
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Radio Galaxies, e.g. 3C296 Radio galaxies “shine” by a mechanism called synchrotron radiation
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What is synchrotron radiation? Accelerated electrons radiate EM waves DEMO
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History of Radio Astronomy, circa 1960 Some of the brightest radio sources, 3C48, 3C273, did not seem to be associated with galaxies, but with star-like objects
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Spectra of these sources showed highly redshifted lines great distances Z = (w-w 0 )/w 0 = 0.16, 0.48, 1.7, 4.42 !! Quasar = Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources
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With Hubble Space Telescope, we have imaged Quasars
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What are quasars? Artistic view of an early quasar Physically what They are
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In quasars and radio galaxies, there is a connection from the small to the extremely large: M87
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M87 at radio wavelengths: it exists on many scales
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The “Central Engines” of quasars and radio galaxies: black holes of 1 - 10 billion solar masses
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Summary of Quasar Characteristics Clearly are a brilliant, energetic phenomenon in centers of galaxies Quasars are very distant. We see them as they were long ago Let’s look at the distribution of quasar redshifts
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Question: what does this mean? 7236 quasars
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Extragalactic Astronomy as a Time Machine
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