Physical Geography TEXT HIGHLIGHTS The Universe Solar System Basic Knowledge About the Earth The Universe has no edge and nothing exisis beyond it, not even space. In the vastness of the Universe, the Earth, the Sun and planets are tiny dots. The Sun is merely one starin a galaxy ising 100,000 million stars. At least as many thousands n of other galaxies, each with its own star systern, extend as far as the largest and most sophisticated of optical and radio teleseapes can reach, ‘As the Universe expands, all galaxies and clusters of galaxies move apart from each other at speeds that depend ‘upon their distances. The furthest ordinary galaxy yet detected, ‘Abell 1835 IR 1916 is 13,230 million light years away and is, receding at 45 per cent of the speed of light. The most distant ‘object in the Universe es on 14 July 2004 is in background of ‘Abell 2218. This corresponds to adistance greater than 2 billion, light years, Beyond this, astronomers are looking back to a time when the Universe was bor, and the detectable Universe fades out. Gur present view of universe began with the findings of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. What they found was very much opposed by others at the time, mainly because established order was based on Arisioile's teachings. These “new” ideas were thought to diminish the role of humans in 1H Atmosphere © Lithosphere Hydrosphere the universe, to undermine our importance we have expanded ‘our vision since then by enormous effort, painstaki ‘observations, and an ongoing desire to comprehend our surroundings. 1.1 Vastness of the Universe ‘The vastness of the universe is clearly beyond normal ‘comprehension. To begin ta develop a feel for astronomical distances, we might consider a reduced-seale model of the universe. Ifthe distance between Earth and the Sun, which is 150,000,000 km, is taken be 2.5 centimeters, then the distance from Earth to the nearest star would be 7-2 kilometer, and distance from Earth to the next gataxy beyond the Milky Way ‘would become about 240,000 kilometers 4.2. Three Theories of How the Universe Began ‘How did the Universe come into being? astronomers have three rival theories, By matching the predictions of each theary the observed properties of the Universe, they decide which fits the facts best. Of the three, the simplest—the Big ‘Bang Theory—is the current favourite.