What is our physical place in the Universe?

Our place in the Universe

Earth orbits the Sun
There are 100 billion
other stars in the Milky
Way
There are about 40 other
galaxies in the Local
Group.
The Local Group is part of the Local Supercluster.
The Local Supercluster is one small piece of the Universe.

Universe

How did we come to be?

The sum total of all matter and energy;

that is, everything within and between
all galaxies

Our cosmic origins

Big Bang starts the expansion of the Universe.
Early Universe contained only the elements hydrogen (H; 75% by
mass) and helium (He; 25% by mass).
All other elements (C, N, O, etc.) were made in stars and recycled
into new generations of stars within galaxies.
Our solar system consists of 98% of H&He and 2% of heavier
elements.
We are star stuff.

How can we know what the Universe

was like in the past?
Light travels at a finite speed (300,000 km/s).

Destination

Light travel time

Moon

1 second

Sun

8 minutes

Sirius

8 years

Andromeda Galaxy 2.5 million years

Thus, we see objects as they were in the past:
The farther away we look in distance, 
the further back we look in time!

Example:

At great distances, we see objects as they were

This photo shows the Andromeda Galaxy as it looked about

2.5 million (=2.5x106) years ago.
Question: When will we be able to see what it looks like now?

when the Universe was much younger.

Can we see the entire Universe?

M31, The Great Galaxy
in Andromeda

No age limits the size of the observable Universe. For a 14 billion year
old Universe, our observable Universe is 14 billion light-years in radius.

Scale of the Solar System

Scale of the Universe

How big is Earth compared to our solar system?

How far away are the stars?
How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?
How big is the Universe?
How do our lifetimes compare to the age of the Universe?

Sizes and Distances: How Big is Big?

How big is the Earth compared to our solar system?
On a scale of 1-to-10 billion, the Sun is about the size of a grapefruit.
The Earth is the size of a ball point about 15 m away. The distances
between planets are huge compared to their sizes.

How far away are the stars?

Alpha Centauri is 4.4 light-years (or approx. 4.4x1013 km) away from us.
On the same scale, the stars are thousands of km away.

How big is the Milky Way Galaxy?

Scale of 1:1010

Sizes and Distances: How Big is Big?

(Cont.)
How big is the observable Universe?

14 billion light-years in radius.

100 billion (or 1011) galaxies in the observable Universe.
100 billion stars per galaxy on average.
Total of 1022 stars in the observable Universe as many stars as grains of
dry sand on all of the Earths beaches.

There are about 1x1011 stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

It would take more than 3,000(!) years to count the stars in the Milky
Way Galaxy at a rate of one per second.
The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across; it takes light
100,000 years to travel across the galaxy!

How do our lifetimes compare to the

age of the Universe?
Cosmic Calendar: a time-scale on which we compress the
history of the Universe into one calendar year.
Big Bang took place on Jan 1 at 00:00:00am.
First galaxies were born in Feb.
Solar System formed around Sep 3; early life in Earth formed
around Sep 22.
Modern humans evolved on Dec 31 at 11:58pm.
Our civilization is just a few seconds old! And a human lifetime is
a mere blink of an eye.

How is Earth moving in our solar system?

Contrary to our perception, we are not sitting still.
We are moving with the Earth in several ways, and at
surprisingly fast speeds

Spaceship Earth

How is Earth moving in our solar system?

How is our solar system moving in the Galaxy?
How do galaxies move within the Universe?
Are we ever sitting still?

Earth orbits the Sun (revolves) once every year:

at an average distance of 1 AU 150 million km.
with Earths axis tilted by 23.5 (pointing to Polaris).
and rotating in the same direction it orbits, counter
-clockwise as viewed from above the North Pole.

The Earth rotates

around its axis once
every day.

Our Sun moves randomly relative to the other stars

in the local Solar neighborhood
typical relative speeds of more than 70,000 km/hr.
but stars are so far away that we cannot easily notice
their motion.

Are we ever sitting still?

And the Sun orbits the galaxy every 230 million years.

How do galaxies move within the Universe?

Galaxies are carried along with the expansion of the Universe. But
how did Hubble figure out that the Universe is expanding?

Hubble discovered that:

All galaxies outside our Local Group are
moving away from us.
The more distant the galaxy, the faster it is
racing away.
Conclusion: We live in an expanding Universe!

History of Astronomy: Babylonians

and Greeks (Ch.3, pp. 57-64)

Ancient Roots of Science

In what ways do all humans employ
scientific thinking?
How did astronomical observations benefit
ancient societies?
What did ancient civilizations achieve in
astronomy?

In what ways do all humans

employ scientific thinking?
Scientific thinking is based on everyday ideas of
observation and trial-and-error experiments
Our goal is to explain and predict the observed
phenomena.
A scientific model is a conceptual representation that
provides both explanation and prediction of a given
phenomenon.

How did astronomical observations

benefit ancient societies?
Keeping track of time and seasons
for practical purposes, including
agriculture.
for religious and ceremonial purposes.
AND for aid in navigation

What did ancient civilizations

achieve in astronomy?
daily timekeeping

tracking the seasons and calendar

monitoring lunar cycles
monitoring planets and stars
predicting eclipses
navigate
and more

South Pacific: Polynesians were very skilled in the art of celestial navigation

Babylonia
Astronomy of Babylonians
What were the purposes of Astronomy in
ancient Babylonia?
What are the scientific breakthroughs of the
Babylonians?
How did the western astronomy benefit
from these breakthroughs?

Purposes of Astronomy in ancient Babylonia

As in most ancient cultures, astronomy was actually
practiced as astrology.
Astronomical events, whether they were every-day
occurrences or rare incidents, had a deep religious meaning
for the people.
It was believed that all things happened for a reason!
Lives were lived according to the advice of these
astronomers/astrologists!
Orientation of the constellations was used to mark seasons
for harvesting or sowing crops.
Certain constellations were noted for their yearly rising or setting
times, and provided an accurate clock by which time could be
measured.

Historically, two ethnic

groups, the Sumerians
and Akkadians, had
dominated the Babylonia.
An area rich in natural
resources, and
strategically located for
trade routes and
commerce, it was often
under threat from
outsiders throughout the
region's history.

The origins of western astronomy can be found in

Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" Tigris and
Euphrates.

What are the scientific breakthroughs of the

Babylonians?
Babylonians not only recognized Venus as the same object
whether it appeared in the morning or evening, but they
actually developed a method for calculating the length of
the Venus cycle!
Babylonians were able to predict solar and lunar eclipses.
They applied a simple method, which made future
predictions based on past observations!
They almost certainly knew about the saros cycle; the general
pattern of eclipses repeats every 18 years (and 11.3 days).

Babylonians created the zodiacthe circle of little

animalswhich marked the twelve constellations that the
Sun, Moon, and planets travel between during their
movements through the sky.

What are the scientific breakthroughs of the

Babylonians? (Cont.)
Constellations that we still use today, such as Leo,
Gemini, Capricorn, etc. were invented by the Sumerians
between 2,000-3,000 BC. A great deal of astronomical
mythology was handed down from the Sumerians.
Babylonian system of mathematics was sexagesimal, or a
base 60 numeral system. From this we derive the modern
day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an
hour.
Babylonians invented the degree system to distinguish
positions in the sky (360 degrees, 60 in 1 degree, etc.).

How did western astronomy benefit from these

breakthroughs?
The Babylonian underpinnings of western astronomy are
extensive!
It was from the Babylonians that the Greeks gained their
knowledge of the five visible planets and the constellations
of the zodiac, and centuries of recorded astronomical
observations.
Greeks also adopted the idea that the motions of the
planets could be predicted with accuracy!

Greeks adopted the degree system and also many of the

Babylonian constellations, which they renamed in Greek!

Ancient Greek Science

Why does modern science trace its roots to
the Greeks?
How did the Greeks explain planetary
motion?
How did Islamic scientists preserve and
extend Greek science?

Why does modern science trace its roots to

the Greeks?
Greeks were the first
people known to make
models of nature.
They used logic and
geometry to explain
patterns in nature
without resorting to
myth or the supernatural.

Greek geocentric model (400 BC)

Artists reconstruction of Library of Alexandria.

Established in 300 BC, this library existed for about 700
years!

What is a scientific model?

Scientific model is a conceptual
representation whose purpose is to explain
and predict observed phenomena.

They sought to
understand the
architecture of the
Universe by constructing
models of nature.

How did Islamic scientists preserve and

extend Greek science?

How did Islamic scientists preserve and

extend Greek science? (Cont.)

Muslim world preserved and enhanced the knowledge they

received from the Greeks (after the Library of Alexandria
was destroyed).

While Europe was in its Dark Ages, Islamic scientists

preserved and extended Greek science, later helping to ignite
the European Renaissance.

Al-Mamuns House of Wisdom in Baghdad was a great

center of learning around 800 AD. Jews, Christians, and
Muslims worked in synergy to advance science.

More about the the European Renaissance at the next lecture!

With the fall of Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453 AD,

Eastern scholars headed west to Europe, carrying knowledge
that helped ignite the European Renaissance.