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Welcome to SCIE 150:

The Science of Everything
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Last Class
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Last Class
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Today: our place in the Milky Way,

and in the Universe
Galaxies,
including
ours

The Universe
and the Big
Bang

Dark Matter
and Dark
Energy

Extrasolar
Planets
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Our place in the Milky Way

The Milky Way is
A. A pattern of stars in our night sky
B. The galaxy in which we live
C. A nearby galaxy
D. The entire universe

The Sun is located

A. At the centre of our galaxy
B. At the outer rim of our galaxy
C. 2/3 of the way out from the centre of our galaxy
D. Not in the galaxy at all
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Galaxy
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Structure of a Spiral Galaxy

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The Milky Way in the Night Sky

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The Milky Way

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The Milky Way galaxy

Outside view (impossible) of the Milky Way, from the side

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The Suns Motion

Compared to nearby stars, the Sun:
A. does not move relative to nearby stars
B. is motionless while nearby stars orbit around it
C. is moving, with nearby stars flying around with
random directions and speeds

On average, the nearby stars and the Sun

A. are motionless within the galaxy
B. orbit the centre of the galaxy
C. are moving outwards from the centre of the galaxy
D. other
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The Suns Orbit in the Milky Way

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Galactic Centre
a Supermassive Black Hole
4.1 million solar
masses,
or about
8.21036 kg
About the
diameter of
Uranus' orbit
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The Local Group

300 Billion stars

Large and Small

Magellanic Clouds
10 billion, 2 billion
stars

2-3x as big as the Milky Way

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Galaxy Collision Simulation vs. Reality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0u3lAKV4Pk
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Hubble Deep Field

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The Broader Universe

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The Motions of Galaxies

On average, distant galaxies are moving

A. In all sorts of different directions and speeds
B. In an orbit around the centre of the universe
C. Not much at all
D. Away from us
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The Retreating Universe

20s and 30s,
Edwin Hubble
noticed that
distant galaxies
are all moving
away from us
Measured their
redshift (Doppler
shift of their
light)

Farther galaxies
are moving away
faster
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Universal Expansion
Space itself is
expanding, carrying
galaxies apart

All galaxies see the

same thing

Farther galaxies are

moving faster (more
space between us
and them)

No centre, no edge
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The Observable Universe

Age of the
universe: 13.7
billion years

Observe using
light, which
travels at
300,000 km/s

We see back in
time...
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The Big Bang Singularity

Look backwards in time: expansion reverses, universe

gets smaller
What happens when we reach zero
Is it like a black hole, a singularity?
What was it like? Was it an explosion, or something else?
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The Everywhere Stretch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3MWRvLndzs
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The Big Bang:

A. Happened at a certain point in space that we can
look at if we look in the right direction
B. Was a stretching that happened everywhere in
space
C. Is just a theory
D. Caused matter to be thrown out of a giant
explosion in space
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The Hot Early Universe

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Activity: The Expansion of the

Universe
Work in groups of 2-3

Discuss and agree on answers

Fill in your own sheet, make sure to sign your

name to it
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Take-up Questions C

Earliest: Does the surface of

B
Hottest: this balloon have a
Densest: centre or edge?

All galaxies
A. Experience
something different
depending on their location
B. See the same exact thing
Do galaxies move
The universe along across the
A. Has an edge, no centre balloon surface?
B. Has no centre, but has an edge
C. Has an edge and a centre Do they change
D. Has neither an edge nor a centre size?
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What is the Universe made of?

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Dark Matter:
Galaxy rotation curves and cluster orbits

But what is it? Some sort of particle, maybe, that

doesnt interact with light at all
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Dark Matter Halo

There is 10
times the
amount of
mass in this
spherical
halo than all
the stars in
the disk
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Proof of Dark Matter: Lensing

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Dark Energy
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Dark Matter vs. Dark Energy

If there were a lot
of Dark Matter,
universal
expansion would:
A. Slow and stop
B. Speed Up

What is the
original cause of
the expansion?
A. Dark Matter
B. Dark Energy
C. Big Bang

Dark Energy not

the cause of the
expansion!!
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Make-up of the Universe

Stars: 0.5%
H and He: 4%
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Our Place in the Universe

Universe could be infinite

We understand < 5% of it

Observable universe contains hundreds of billions

of galaxies

Our Milky Way contains hundreds of billions of

stars

Each of those stars, we now know, is likely to have

its own planets
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Detecting Exoplanets

Direct Imaging is About 8 MJup

hard 330 AU
Planet and star
appear very close
together
Star is a billion
times brighter
than a planet!

Done only a few First time around a sun-like star: 2008

times
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Other Methods
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Doppler Technique

Star is tugged about by the planet

The stars spectrum is redshifted/blueshifted
If the star is moving a lot (shifting a lot) the
planet must be A) very massive B) low mass
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The First Exoplanet: 1995

Found using Doppler
Technique

51 Pegasi B
First around a sun-like
star

Closer orbit than

Mercury, similar size as
Jupiter: a Hot Jupiter
The easiest thing to find,
so we found many of
them at first
Does this mean that they
must be the most
common type of planet?
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Transit Technique

Amount of light blocked out by planet tells us its radius

If a lot of light is being blocked, planet must have
A) a big radius like Jupiter B) a small radius like Earth

Can then combine with Doppler Technique to get mass

If you know radius and mass, you can get density
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Techniques
A. Direct detection
B. Doppler
C. Transit

Which method gives us the mass of the planet?

Which method shows us what the planet actually
looks like?
Which method requires an extremely unlikely, near-
perfect alignment between star and planet for it to
work?
Which method is not needed in order for us to
calculate what the planet is made of (rock/gas/etc)?
What do we really want to find?
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Habitable Zones: Liquid Water
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http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog/media/pte
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http://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog
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Current Estimates
2013: first estimates of habitable Earths around
Sun-like stars (Petigura et al.)
22% have Earths
ONE IN FIVE STARS

Given the number of Sun-like stars in the MW

Thats around 10 billion Earths
Havent found an Earth yet, but in the next few
years...
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Take Part!

Citizen Science is taking off, you can help

Google these, or zooniverse
Substantial discoveries have already been made
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Next Class: Atoms and Elements

Readings and Quiz based on Chapter 4 and 6