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    BigBang PDF

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    Samuel K. Anastasiu

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    BigBang PDF

    Uploaded by

    Samuel K. Anastasiu
    152 views32 pages

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    BigBang.pdf

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    Copyright:

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    152 views32 pages

    BigBang PDF

    Uploaded by

    Samuel K. Anastasiu

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 32

    The Big Bang Theory &

    Expansion of the Universe

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,


    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    What is our physical place in the universe?

    Our Cosmic Address

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,


    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    Example: the Suns Spectrum

    Example: the Suns Spectrum

    Distinct energy levels lead to distinct emission or
    absorption lines.

    Hydrogen
    Energy
    Levels

    Emission:
    atom loses
    energy

    Absorption:
    atom gains
    energy

    Doppler Shift

    Definition : Redshift

    The measure of the amount a spectral line is shifted
    in wavelength
    Galaxies are all moving
    away from each other, so
    every galaxy sees the
    same Hubble expansion,
    i.e there is no center.

    The cosmic expansion is


    the unfolding of all space
    since the big bang,

    i.e. there is no edge.

    We are limited in our


    view by the time it takes
    distant light to reach us,

    i.e. the universe has an
    edge in time not space.
    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,
    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    Expansion is Accelerating!

    The plots on the right
    were the data from
    supernovae that showed
    that the expansion of the

    Apparent Brightness

    universe is not constant
    but has changed value
    over time.

    More distant
    supernovae are dimmer
    than expected

    Something (Dark
    Energy) is causing the
    expansion to accelerate.
    We dont know what
    Dark Energy is only
    that it appears to 2005 Pearson Education Inc.,
    counteract gravity
    publishing as Addison-Wesley
    Redshift ~ Distance

    Cosmology: What We Know

    1. Redshift its cosmic
    expansion, not Doppler
    If the Universe is expanding, then reversing
    that expansion (going backwards in time)
    indicates that the Universe must have been
    smaller in the past.

    Blackbody (Thermal) Radiation

    Two Properties of Thermal Radiation:

    1. Hotter objects emit more light at all frequencies per unit area.

    2. Hotter objects emit photons with a higher average energy.

    Infrared Light Human Body Glows!

    Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background

    1964

    Bob
    Wilson

    Arno
    Penzias

    Cosmology: What We Know

    2. Background
    Radiation
    thermal, at
    2.73K

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,


    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    Measuring the Cosmic Microwave Background

    T = 2.725 K

    WMAP

    T = 3.35 mK

    T = 18 K

    T = 18 K

    An image of quantum
    fluctuations blown up to
    the size of the universe
    Planck Satellite

    3. Galaxies in past look
    younger (smaller
    and more irregular)

    Hubble Ultra Deep Field


    HSTACS

    4. Deuterium and Helium


    synthesized (higher
    temperatures in the past)

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,
    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    Status of the Big Bang

    There is evidence for expansion, and
    the universe was hotter and denser in
    the distant past.

    The microwave background and the


    helium abundance cannot easily be
    explained in any other way.

    There are hundred of thousands of


    big bang photons in every breath you
    take: the big bang is all around us.

    It is a theory, but a theory with a web


    of evidence to support it. The theory
    is mute about the cause of the cause.
    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,
    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    How do our lifetimes compare to the age
    of the Universe?

    The Cosmic Calendar: a scale on which we


    compress the history of the universe into 1 year.

    This is a time scale model where 14 billion years
    equals 1 year, i.e. 14,000,000,000:1.

    Our lives would scale similarly, so 80 years goes
    down by a factor of 14 billion too.

    In the scale model, a human life is about 2 tenths
    of a second!

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,


    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,
    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    Now home in
    on the more
    recent span
    of the history
    of life and of
    humans and
    civilization

    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,


    publishing as Addison-Wesley

    The Raw Material for Astrobiology

    Space: the potential habitable worlds around ten


    thousand billion billion stars; ours is just one.
    Time: a cosmic history of nearly 14 billion years;
    life took less than billion years to start here.

    If they not be inhabited, what a waste of space.


    Thomas Carlyle, Scottish Essayist (1795-1881)



    2005 Pearson Education Inc.,
    publishing as Addison-Wesley

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