Syllabus Outcome

2. INVESTIGATE the evidence that

led to the discovery of the expansion
of the Universe by Hubble
 Learning Intention: To
describe the expansion of the
universe by Hubble.
A Note on Distances in the Universe
• Distances in space are so large that using normal units
(m or km) becomes too difficult.
– The distance to Proxima Centauri, the next nearest star to
Earth, is about 4 x 1016m (40 000 000 000 000km).
• A light year is the distance that light will travel in a
vacuum in 1 Earth year: 9.46 x 10 15m (light travels at
3.0 x 108ms-1 in a vacuum).
– At this speed, it takes a little over 1 second to reach the
moon.
– Light from the Sun takes 8 mins and 20 seconds to reach
Earth.
– The light from Proxima Centauri takes 4.3 years to get to us.
A Note on Distances in the Universe
• Some other commonly used astronomical distance
units:
– The parsec (about 3.26 light years); and
– The astronomical unit (AU), which is the distance between
the Sun and the Earth.
• Using the Hubble Space Telescope, light that has
taken nearly 14 billion years to travel across the
Universe has been collected and photographed.
– The Hubble Space Telescope was named after Edwin
Hubble, but who was he? Why was his work so important?
 Edwin Hubble
• Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-
1953) was an American
Astronomer who played a
crucial role in
our understanding of the
universe – his law implies the
universe is expanding.
• Aside from this, he also proved
the existence of galaxies
beyond the Milky Way.
First Predictions About the
Expanding Universe
• Edwin Hubble was not the
only scientist who played a
role in our understanding
of the expanding universe.
• Albert Einstein, as well as
Russian
mathematician, Alexander
Friedmann, and Belgian
priest, mathematician and
astronomer, Georges
Lamaitre, also contributed.
First Predictions About the
Expanding Universe
• Einstein published the General Theory of
Relativity in 1916 (he was convinced the
Universe was static).
• However, in 1922 Alexander Friedman found
solutions to the equations of general relativity
that suggested that the Universe could either be
expanding OR contracting.
• [Link]
w
 First Predictions About
the Expanding Universe
• Independently, in 1927, Georges
Lemaitre, came to similar
conclusions.
• He went further though, to
propose that the early Universe
was like a 'primeval atom' full of all
the mass of the Universe.
• Lemaitre used empirical
cosmological data to decide that
the universe must be expanding.
 First Predictions
About the Expanding Universe
• Georges Lemaitre correctly deduced that the
Universe was expanding at a speed, v, that was
proportional to the distance, D, from Earth:
v/D = constant

• The value of Lemaitre's proposed rate of

expansion was similar to the rate measured in
1929 by Edwin Hubble.
 Evidence for Expansion
• Edwin Hubble pioneered a technique to find the
distance to the galaxies outside the Milky Way.
• As you will learn in Mod 7, when light passes through a
gas, it does not pass through unchanged.
– Different gases will absorb different wavelengths of light.
• If the light that has passed through a gas is examined,
any wavelength that was absorbed by the gas will be
missing from the spectrum.
– This will appear as a black line corresponding to the
absorbed wavelength.
 Evidence for Expansion
• When Hubble carefully examined the light from stars in
the galaxies, he found that it showed the familiar
spectra of the elements, such as hydrogen and helium,
but the lines were redshifted (in other words, moved
towards the red end of the spectrum).
• Astronomers interpreted this redshift as meaning that
the galaxies were receding from us at huge speeds
(this allowed them to calculate a velocity of recession
from the redshift).
Evidence for Expansion

14
Evidence for Expansion
How did Hubble measure speeds of objects?

The further away galaxies are, the more red shifted are their spectra, which
means the faster they must be travelling away from us.

Because all stars will

contain Hydrogen and
Helium, their spectra
can be compared to
determine whether stars
are moving towards or
away from us.

Ceilia
Payne
1900-1979
16
 Evidence for Expansion
• Astronomers know today that the redshift of light from
distant galaxies is due to the expansion of the universe. This effect is
called cosmological redshift and is illustrated below.
• As light travels, the wavelength of light is stretched by the expansion
of the universe, and the further the light travels the further it is
stretched.
Evidence for Expansion
How did Hubble know the distance of objects?

Hubble built on the work of Henrietta Leavitt, who could

calculate distance of “Cepheid variable stars” (stars whose
apparent brightness changes periodically).

These stars had a direct relationship between their luminosity

and period. The bigger the star, the longer the period.
1868-1921 (53)

18
 Hubble Constant
• Combining his data on the distance to galaxies and
their redshift, Hubble produced a graph which made it
clear that there was a relationship between the
properties of the galaxies he had measured.
 Hubble Constant
• Hubble found that the further away the galaxy, the
faster it seemed to be moving.
• When he graphed the data, he found that the 'speed of
recession' was proportional to the distance away.
 Hubble Constant
This has become known as Hubble's Law and is
expressed by the equation:
 Hubble Constant
• H0 is the Hubble Constant and corresponds to
the gradient of the graph.
– It is usually given in the units of kms -1 per
megaparsec.
• It has a value of around 70kms-1 Mpc-1.
• EXAMPLE: A 'typical' galaxy at a distance
of 100Mpc would be rushing away from Earth
at 700kms-1. That's about the same as travelling
from Perth to Sydney in half a second!
Worked Example - Question
Astronomers have found the following data for the speed
of distant galaxies:

a.) Analyse the data to find a value for the Hubble

constant.
b.) Using the Hubble constant found in part a, calculate
the recessional speed of a galaxy that is 450Mpc from
the Earth.
Worked Example - Answer
Worked Example - Answer
 Evidence that the universe began with a big bang
● Hubble expansion
○ Distances between cosmic objects is increasing
○ Objects further away from us are moving faster away from us
● Helium/Hydrogen ratio
○ When matter first formed, Helium and Hydrogen were the first stable
atoms to be made.
○ If physicists are correct in their calculations, the ratio of H:He was 75:25,
which is what it is also measured to be today.
● Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
○ The doppler effect on light emitted when the universe was first formed
has shifted so much it is now detectable in the microwave range of the
electromagnetic spectrum, which we can detect.
● Olber’s paradox [Link] [3:00]
○ If you stand in a forest, everywhere you look is a tree
○ If the universe was infinite in size and age, wouldn’t you also see nothing
but a star, and so would the sky be bright, even at night?
26
 Experiment: The Expanding Universe

• All regions of space are moving away from each other, just like the
distance between dots on the surface of an expanding balloon.
• The more distant stars will move away faster than the closer ones.
27
HOMEWORK: Spectra – Explaining an Expanding Universe

Edwin Hubble calculated that the Universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old.

1889-1953 (63)
28