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A few curious facts about the universe
Peter Household
Mitchelstown Library
28 May 2015
A few curious facts about the universe
Peter Household
peterhousehold@gmail.com
http://peterhousehold.blogspot.com/
Venus and Jupiter, June 2015
Venus and Jupiter, June 2015
Orion the hunter
Stars projected on the dome of heaven
The Seven Sisters
410 light years distant
Hugh
O’Neill
Earl of
Tyrone
Flight of
Earls 1607
Quasar appears as it did 12.7 billion years ago Universe was 7 % of present age
>
James Jeans
The solar system to scale ?
Dimensions of solar system
If the balloon is the Sun, how big is the Earth ?
Dimensions of solar system
Balloon Sun, peppercorn Earth
What’s the Earth-Sun distance ?
40 metres
trying to grasp the size of space
trying to grasp the size of space
trying to grasp the size of space
trying to grasp the size of space
trying to grasp the size of space
Gravity
Isaac Newton 1687
Albert Einstein 1915
The earth bending the fabric of space
It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don’t understand it. You see, my physics students don’t understand it either. That’s because I don’t understand it. Nobody does.
Richard Feynman c. 1963
Makemake, Kuiper belt object, discovered 2005
Phoenix digging on Mars 2008
Victoria Crater Mars 2007
Europa – warm ocean? Picture: Galileo 1994-2000
Titan
Dry bed of methane river?
Water and hydrocarbon ice.
Circus Maximus – laboratory for life?
Picture : Huygens Jan 2005
Tongue fish – they cook but they don’t cook
Extremophiles
Europa – warm ocean? Picture: Galileo 1994-2000
Extra solar planets
Exoplanets
first, 1995
270 (July 2008 )
nearly 2000 (20 May 2015)
Corot 7 B
New Scientist 23 Aug 08
Andromeda – our nearest galaxy – visible with naked eye
NGC 1365
Barred spiral galaxy
20th March 2015 about 9:30 amat Blackrock Castle, Cork
Full Moon rising above Cape Sounion, Greece
Galileo
Galilei
1609
The
Orion
Nebula
Mountains of Creation
Cosmic abundances
Hydrogen 70%
Helium 28%
Oxygen 1%
All other elements 1%
Only about 4% of the total energy density in the universe can be seen directly
About 22% is thought to be composed of dark matter
The remaining 74% is thought to consist of dark energy
The last 100 years
1920’s There are other galaxies
1929 … and they are receding (Hubble)
1940’s Big bang theory
1980’s Dark matter - 10 times ordinary stuff
1994 Amino acid in interstellar cloud
1995 Extra-solar planet
1994-2000 “Galileo” mission to Europa
July 2015 New Horizons at Pluto
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce and endows it with some of the grace of tragedy.
Steven Weinberg
Questions ...
Thank you
Cork Astronomy Club
New season starts Sept
observing, study, library, outings
own telescope not required
Peter Household
peterhousehold@gmail.com
http://peterhousehold.blogspot.com/
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