11/05/2025
Evidence about the origins of
the universe…
We learn about the universe from telescopes because
we can’t go there ourselves!
World wide telescope
Optical telescopes use lenses or mirrors to collect light,
but there is a limit to the size that these can be made
accurately.
Radio telescopes can be made with much greater
apertures and gather information in the cm to metre
wavelength spectrum ie the region where the spectra
from hydrogen from distant galaxies has been pushed by
the red shift. link
Video-telescopes Video-seeing through the dust
Parkes Radio telescope, 11/05/2025
Tidbinbila, Australia link
link
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Hubble space telescope Planned SKA (square link
kilometre array
link
photos
News flash
11/05/2025
Spitzer space telescope ‘sees’ in
the Infra-red spectrum range.
These frequencies penetrate
through the clouds of dust and
gas in space that block out much
of the information in the visible
range. link
Galex looks at the e-m
spectrum in the Ultra-
violet range to study
star formation
link link
Chandra examines X-rays from
very energetic events such as
exploding stars and black holes
11/05/2025
SKA will operate in the 70MHz to 10GHz range.
What wavelengths do these frequencies
correspond to and what region of the e.m.
spectrum will it see?
4.29m to 0.03m
Radio frequencies to micro-waves
Distance
Universe scale link
Distances in space are huge – we
measure them with huge units:
Astronomical unit (AU) – Earth to Sun distance, 150 million km
he light year (ly) – distance travelled by light in one year
≈ 10 13 km
he parsec (pc) – 3.26 ly
Travel in space
This would be easy at the speed of light. We could
pass the Moon in just over a second, the Sun in 8
minutes and even be at Pluto in 5 hours.
Confirm these times.
400 000km to Moon
150 million km to Sun
6 billion km to Pluto
11/05/2025
From then on things would take a little longer!
4.2 years to the next star and 100 000 years to
cross the galaxy.
How long to explore the Universe?
11/05/2025
Unfortunately we cannot travel this fast.
Our fastest satellites travel at 16 kms-1.
link
How long would it take to reach Pluto? Proxima centauri?
11.9 years 78 750 years
Distances to close stars can be measured using
geometrical methods
The parsec is the distance to a star that subtends
a 2 arcsecond angle from the baseline of the
Earth’s orbit. This is 3.26 ly.
(One degree = 60 minutes and 1 minute = 60
seconds)
Animation
(go to parallax lab)
The nearest star, proxima
Centauri, after our Sun, is
4.2 ly away, so we can only
use this method for the
closest stars.
11/05/2025
Cepheids
Cepheids, also called Cepheid Variables, are stars
which brighten and dim periodically. This behavior
allows them to be used as cosmic yardsticks for
distances up to a few tens of millions of light-years,
as their period is proportional to their brightness.
By studying Cepheids in our own galaxy and
calibrating their period against their brightness, we
can estimate the distance to Cepheids in distant
galaxies.
Evidence about the origins of the
11/05/2025
universe…
Speed
We need
to look at
Red Shift.
Logical!
Stars produce continuous emission spectra
Source
of light “Spectra
”
As light from a star passes through a
cooler gas, individual frequencies of light
are absorbed by the elements in the gas.
hydrog
en
Some wavelengths of
light are absorbed by
the gas – a line
absorption spectrumanimation Video
11/05/2025
The frequencies absorbed are those same
frequencies that would be emitted if the gas atoms
were excited
This allows us to identify elements present in stars
millions of light years away as these absorption
patterns provide a “fingerprint” of the element
11/05/2025
If the light source is moving away the absorption
spectra look a little different…
Stationary
hydrog
heliu
en
m
“Red shift” is an apparent
shift in wavelengths of light
towards the red (higher
wavelength) end of the
spectrum. It occurs when the
light source is moving away
from us. This effect is known Moving
11/05/2025
The absorption lines have all been “shifted”
towards the longer wavelength end (red
end)… Befor
This is called red
e
shift. The faster
the light source
moves the
further its light
will be “shifted”
After
A similar effect happens with sound
– this is called “The Doppler Effect”
Hear Doppler Effect
11/05/2025
Doppler Effect Link
11/05/2025
Light from different stars and from
the edge of the universe also shows
this “red-shift”. This suggests
that the universe is expanding.
Video
This is the BIG
BANG theory Video
Pre Big Bang?
11/05/2025
Hubble’s Law
Astronomers have observed Red Shift in lots
of galaxies and deduced the fact that more
distant galaxies are moving faster than
closer ones.
Recession velocity xx
x
Edwin Hubble,
1889-1953 xx
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Distance to galaxy
11/05/2025
Hubble’s Law
link
The recessional velocity of a galaxy is proportional to
its distance from us
v = Ho x
d
where v is the galaxy's velocity (in kms-1)
d is the distance to the galaxy in
Megaparsecs
Ho is the Hubble’s constant
Recessio
Assuming Hubble constant
velocity
(kms-1)
of 70kms-1Mpc-1, how far is
to a galaxy whose
recessional velocity is 1000
n
kms-1?
Distance to galaxy 14.3 Mpc
(Mpc)
11/05/2025
The beginning of the Universe
If the Universe is expanding then the Universe must
have been smaller in the past.
Following this argument to its natural conclusion the
Universe must have originated from a point in space.
Before the Universe came into being, space and
time did not exist.
he beginning of the Universe was unbelievably hot.
Only radiation existed and as the Universe cooled the
radiant energy condensed into quarks and antiquarks
that annihilated one another.
Video
This is, today, the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background
radiation that is detectable everywhere in space. The
wavelengths of the original radiation are shifted to the
microwave band due to the expansion of the Universe
However, there were more quarks than antiquarks
and these eventually formed the familiar protons and
neutrons (Baryons) and electrons that are the familiar
particles that make up all atoms.
link
Video – stars produce the elements
LEPTONS HADRON
(not fundamental)
GAUGE
(fundamental)
S
BOSONS
Electron e Baryons Mesons virtual photons
3 2
electron neutrino e Quarks Quarks Electromagnetic
force
Muon QQQ Q W+ W- Z0
Proton antiQ
Pions The weak force
muon neutrino p 0 , ,
gluons
Tau particle Neutron Kaon
Tau neutrino n s0
K , K ,K The strong force
gravitons
All leptons and hadrons have a corresponding
Gravity
antimatter particle denoted with a bar across
the top of the symbol means antiproton
23
11/05/2025
Hadrons
These are particles made up of quarks held together
by the strong force
Protons and Neutrons are Hadrons
s they are made up of 3 quarks each they are called Baryon
Proton uud (up, up, down)
Neutron udd (up, down, down)
Charges: up +⅔ down -⅓
link
Quarks also have another property called “COLOUR
CHARGE”
[usually referred to as just “colour” ]
The three possible colours are red, blue and green.
Red blue and green together make white and
quarks particles can only exist where the quarks
altogether produce a colourless mix
D D
U U
U D
proton neutron
25
Neutrinos () are particles similar to an electron,
virtually massless, but with no charge.
link
Invented to solve the conservation of energy problem
associated with decay.
n p + e- + e
Notice that a down quark changes to
an up quark and the particle ejected
with the electron is an antineutrino
Due to these properties they are very difficult
to detect as they can pass through matter
easily.
They are emitted during radio-active decay
and thus there is a steady stream of them
coming from the Sun.
video
11/05/2025
The Universe is still 98% Hydrogen. The heavier
elements were formed in the furnace of stars over
billions of years.
Charlie video
Video (16min)
Black hole youtube (10 min)
11/05/2025
The End of the Universe
Basically, how the universe will end
depends on its “energy-mass density”.
Stephen
Now Open universe
Hawking
Size of universe
Critical
density
Closed
universe
Time
