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 THE UNIVERSE
(Press the topic)

• Origin of Universe
• Galaxies
• Stars
• Planets
• Measuring Distances in The Universe
• Constellations
• The Solar System
• The Moon
• Other Celestial Objects in Solar System
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 Origin of Universe
• The Big Bang theory is the current
model that describes the early
development of the universe
• It started as a little speck of a hot,
super-massive, and super-dense ball.
Everything that is currently in the
universe came from that speck. Every
single proton, neutron, atom, and so
forth came from that ball. About 13.7
billion years ago, BANG! A violent
explosion hurled the material within that
ball into all directions of space.

• The universe expanded quickly after the Big Bang and continues to expand today. As
the universe expanded and cooled, things started to form, including neutrons,
protons, atoms, stars, and galaxies. All the different elements in the universe that
exist today developed from that initial ball 13.7 billion years ago.

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 Galaxies
A Galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar
gas, dust, and dark matter .Galaxies range in size from dwarfs with just a few
thousand stars to giants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting their galaxy's own
center of mass. Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology, including
elliptical, spiral, and irregular. Many galaxies are thought to have black holes at their
active centers. The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass
four million times greater than our own Sun.

Types of galaxies

(E= elliptical; S= spiral; SB= spiral-barred)

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 Stars
• A star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity. The nearest
star to Earth is the Sun. Other stars are visible from Earth during the night,
appearing as a multitude of fixed luminous points in the sky due to their immense
distance from Earth. The most prominent stars are grouped into constellations, and
the brightest stars gained proper names. Extensive catalogues of stars have been
created by astronomers, which provide standardized star designations
• A star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core,
releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space.
Once the hydrogen in the core of a star is nearly exhausted, all naturally occurring
elements heavier than helium are created by stellar nucleosynthesis during the star's
lifetime and, for some stars.
Life cycle of star

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Black holes : -
• These are huge super massive
and dense structures that even
light cannot escape them.
• They emit x-rays after sucking
up enough matter.
• They are a remnant of a star
with 20x mass of sun. These
stars die in a supernova
explosion.

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 Planets
• A planet is an astronomical object orbiting a star or stellar remnant that :-
1. Is massive enough to be rounded by
its own gravity,

2. Is not massive enough to cause

thermonuclear fusion Mercury, Venus, Earth
3. Cannot produce its own light.

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn

Uranus, Venus
• The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science, mythology, and religion.
Several planets in the Solar System can be seen with the naked eye. These
were regarded by many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of deities. As
scientific knowledge advanced, human perception of the planets changed,
incorporating a number of disparate objects.
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 Measuring Distances in Universe
Astronomers use many of the same units of measurement as other scientists. They
often use meters for length, kilograms for mass, and seconds for time. However, the
distances and sizes in the universe can be so big, that astronomers have invented more
units to describe distance.

Astronomical Units:

Distances in the solar system are often measured in astronomical units. An astronomical
unit is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun:

1 AU = 1.496 × 108 km = 93 million miles

Jupiter is about 5.2 AU from the Sun and Pluto is about 39.5 AU from the Sun. The
distance from the Sun to the center of the Milky Way is approximately 1.7 × 109 AU.

Light-Years:

To measure the distances between stars, astronomers often use light-years (abbreviated
ly). A light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year:

1 ly = 9.5 × 1012 km = 63,240 AU

Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to Earth (other than the Sun) and is 4.2 light-years
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away. This means light from Proxima Centauri takes 4.2 years to10-Jan-16
travel to Earth.
 Measuring Distances in Universe
(Contd.)
Parsecs:

Many astronomers prefer to use parsecs (abbreviated pc) to measure distance to stars.
This is because its definition is closely related to a method of measuring the distances
between stars. A parsec is the distance at which 1 AU subtends and angle of 1 arcsec.

1 pc = 3.09 × 1013 km = 3.26 ly

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 Constellation
• In modern astronomy, a constellation is a specific area of the celestial sphere as
defined by the International Astronomical Union. These areas mostly had their origins
in Western-traditional asterisms from which the constellations take their names. There
are 88 officially recognized constellations, covering the entire sky.

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 Solar System
• The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition to
planets, the Solar System also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets,
and dust and gas. Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun.

There are 8 planets:-

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 Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is one of the largest natural satellites in the
Solar System, and, among planetary satellites, the largest relative to the size of the
planet it orbits.

The Moon is thought to have formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, not long after
Earth. There are several hypotheses for its origin; the most widely accepted explanation
is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and
a Mars-sized body called Theia.

There are 8 phases of moon:-

Moon tends to form
phases as it reflects the
light that is emitted by
our sun.

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 Other Celestial Objects in solar system
Celestial object is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that
current science has demonstrated to exist in the observable universe. Typically, an
astronomical (celestial) body refers to a single, comprehensive structure that is bound
together by gravity. Examples include the asteroids, moons, planets and the stars.
Astronomical objects are gravitationally bound structures that are associated with a
position in space, but may consist of multiple independent astronomical bodies or
objects.

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(Bibliography:- www.space.com,Wikipedia)

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