Understanding the PHYSICS of the Cosmic Times Inquiring into the Nature of the Universe

Adapted from Dr. James LochnerUSRA & NASA/GSFC

Sandra Sweeney, Joseph PetskoPerkiomen Valley School District, PA

Newton Einstein

Our understanding of the nature of the Universe has changed as our questions

and technology have changed.

What are some questions we might ask?

What are the tools we might use?

1. Give a description of the theory of gravity.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation

1. How does it explain the motions of the planets?

2. What prediction does it make for the bending of light, and the upcoming eclipse in 1919?

Information Exchange(1918)

Einstein discovered that gravity is curved space-time. His theory predicted that

light would bend when passing near a massive object.

Einstein discovered that gravity is curved space-time. His theory predicted that

light would bend when passing near a massive object.

1919 Solar Eclipse verified Einstein’s prediction.

Mass of the objects Distance between them

Inertia: the resistance to change in motion and direction of motion in an object The more mass something has, the more it

resists a change in its motion – the more inertia it has!!!

solar eclipse in Varanasia vid

Sleep and smart phones

“Tomorrow the outlook may change and new methods may dwarf our knowledge and beliefs of today, or convert them into remote history. Soon we may look far beyond the last frontier, now 140,000,000 light years away. We, or our successors, may actually know familiarly the farthest borders of this vast Universe and learn facts about it so astounding that astronomers of today would be nearly unable to comprehend their significance.” -1927

1. What did Hubble say to become famous?

2. What was his evidence?

3. Create an analogy for comparing Cepheid variable stars to a real-world scenario.

Shapley thought they were part of Milky Way because he couldn't determine their true distance.

Hubble settled the question – when he determined the distance to Andromeda Galaxy.

1. Use Cepheid variable stars

Henrietta Leavitt first used

How to use:1. c.v.s. flash rate tells their

absolute magnitude (aka true brightness)

2. Comparing absolute magnitude and apparent magnitude (brightness to observer) tells distance

2. Use 100” Hooker telescope at Mt Wilson, CA Better telescopes

allowed astronomers to see further and with more clarity

Hubble determined distance to Andromeda Galaxy to be 900,000 LY (light years)– outside the Milky Way!!

A light year is the DISTANCE light travels in a year.

It is equivalent to 6 trillion miles (6,000,000,000,000)

Distances to galaxies determined using Cepheid variable stars

Andromeda galaxy outside the Milky Way We are in only one of MANY galaxies

Is the motion of galaxies static? Is the motion of galaxies random? Are the galaxies getting closer or further

apart?

What data do we need to answer this question?

The Universe is expanding!

Car horn passing by Doppler effect video Doppler effect animation Racecars Starlight and space ship interactive

Observations showed most “nebulae” appeared red. Red shift: Stars/galaxies moving away from

us show light that is shifted to the red end of the visible spectrum

Some galaxies appeared blue. What does that mean? Blue shift: Stars moving towards us show

light shifted to the blue end.

Understanding Doppler Effect helps in understanding redshift of light.

Demo: Hubble rubber band

Apparent shift of wavelengths as objects approach or move away

Wavelengths bunch up and get shorter as a wave approaches (higher frequency) Higher pitch or

blueshift

Wavelengths spread out and get longer as wave recedes (lower frequency) Lower pitch or redshift

Click here to hear and see – Minute Physics vid

Use images of Cepheid stars and galaxies to determine their distances

Put this together with their redshift data

Size of galaxy

100,000 light years

What does the graph tell us?

Velo

city

Distance

#3:Further galaxies are moving away at higher velocities than nearby galaxies!!The Universe is accelerating apart

Hubble put together the amount of redshift of galaxies

Velo

city

Distance

Refer to pg 17 in your Earth Science Textbook as we do this activity together

Follow-up questions: 1. Did the distance between A and B or between

C and B show the greater rate of change? 2. Did the rate of change for either set of dots

differ during the first or second time period? 3. Suppose C and A represent galaxies and dot

B represents the Earth. How does the distance between galaxies and Earth relate to the rate at which they are moving apart?

Velocity: the distance traveled over a certain time in a given direction

v=d/t*fundamental units are in ()

v = velocity, measured in meters per second (m/s)

d = distance, measured in meters (m) t = time, measured in seconds (s)

1. If a star travels 3000 kilometers in ten seconds, what is its velocity?

2. How can you rewrite the formula v=d/t to solve for d? For t?

1. If a comet is travelling at 200 kilometers per second for 20 seconds, how far did it travel?

During the wartime blackouts in California, Walter Baade discovered two different populations of stars in Andromeda

This led to realizing there are two types of Cepheids, with two different period-luminosity relationships.

Hubble had unknowingly used the wrong relationship.

Yardstick vs Metersticks

Steady State Theory: As universe expands, matter is created.

Big Bang: running expansion backwards leads us to a point of high density and high temperature from which universe originated. (Create everything all at once)

[show clip of 1955 Cosmic Times showing “Origin of Everything” article ?]

Fred Hoyle, Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold see the movie The Dead of Night, in which the end of the story circles back to its beginning.

Unchanging situations need not be static New matter can be created spontaneously as the universe

expands (a few hundred atoms per year per galaxy) Expansion of universe and creation of new matter balanced

via a negative energy. The universe is constant in its overall density

Starting from earlier work, George Gamow & Ralph Alpher worked out the conditions in the early universe

Universe is expanding from a state of high density and pressure.

Hydrogen & Helium were formed as universe cooled. There should be left over a background radiation

with a temperature of ~ 5 Kelvin

Hoyle scoffed at this theory and coined the term “Big Bang”

Scientists Sort through Theories by examining Evidence and making Inferences

Bowl of Evidence

Penzias and Wilson were using a 20-foot horn detector to make radio observations of the Milky Way.

Effort to reduce noise in the detector left them with a 3 K residual. But they didn’t know its origin.

Peebles and Dicke (Princeton) had just calculated an estimate for the temperature of the residual background temperature, and found it was detectable in the microwave region. Peebles and Dicke were convinced that Penzias and Wilson had found it.

This solved the Steady State vs Big Bang question.

Show clip from 1965 CT, with “Murmur of a Bang” and “Big Hiss”

How can we envision an expanding universe?

1965 CMB Activity

1919 - Confirmation of Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

1929 - Hubble’s discovery of Expanding Universe

1955 - Debate between Big Bang and Steady State

1965 - Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background

1993 - COBE Results; Development of Inflation Theory

2006 - Grappling with Dark Energy.

Our understanding of the Expansion of the Universe

Nature of Supernovae The size and scale of the Universe

A number of other themes also appear. Impact of improved technology. Role of Women in early astronomy.

Objectives: The students identify and describe unfamiliar scientist “heroes” that contributed to the field of science up to the year 1929.

Summary: identify the women scientists of the Harvard

College Observatory use the world wide web to complete a product

on one of the these unfamiliar scientific “heroes” that they discovered in their research.

A print of this Harvard College Observatory photograph was found in an album that had once belonged to Annie Jump Cannon.

These women assisted Pickering in measuring stars and features on the photographic plates.

Pickering’s Harem

“Newsletter version” for individual student use

http://cosmictimes.gsfc.nasa.gov/

1919 & 1929 Posters and Lessons now Available

This presentation is available (with links to lessons)

1955 materials available soon. Sign up for email updates