The Sky

Sky is the region of space visible from the earth. The sky consists of the atmosphere, which
extends hundreds of miles or kilometers above the earth. The atmosphere is composed chiefly
of nitrogen and oxygen. In addition, it contains tiny water droplets and ice crystals in the form
of clouds and precipitation. Smoke, dust particles, and chemical pollutants may also fill the sky
over cities.

The colors of the sky result from the scattering of sunlight by the gas molecules and dust
particles in the atmosphere. Sunlight consists of light waves of varying wavelengths, each of
which is seen as a different color (see LIGHT (Electromagnetic waves)). The shortest light waves
appear blue and the longest red. The blue light waves are readily scattered by tiny particles of
matter in the atmosphere, but the red light waves travel undisturbed unless they are struck by
larger particles.

When the sky is clear, the waves of blue light are scattered much more than those of any other
color. As a result, the sky appears blue. When the sky is full of dense clouds or smoke, the light
waves of all colors are scattered, causing the sky to turn gray. At sunrise or sunset, sunlight
must travel farther through the atmosphere than when the sun is overhead. Light waves of
most colors are scattered. Undisturbed red light waves give the sun and sky near the horizon a
red or orange appearance.

Contributor: T. Theodore Fujita, Sc.D., Professor Emeritus of Meteorology, University of

Chicago.
 Cosmology

Cosmology, pronounced koz MOL uh jee, in astronomy, is the study of the structure and
development of the universe and the forces that work on it. Cosmologists try to explain how
the universe formed, what has happened to it since, and what might happen to it in the future.

Five observations have contributed much to modern cosmology: (1) the sky is dark at night; (2)
galaxies move away from one another; (3) the entire sky gives off radio waves; (4) helium is
abundant in the universe; and (5) the age of the oldest stars is 10 billion to 20 billion years.

The dark sky. During the 1700's and 1800's, astronomers wondered why the sky is dark at
night. In the simplest universe they could imagine, stars would be distributed evenly
throughout an infinite space. The entire night sky would therefore appear to be a solid mass of
stars as bright as the sun. The inconsistency between this imaginary sky and the actual dark sky
indicates that the universe has a complex structure. This inconsistency has been named
Olbers's paradox after its author, German astronomer Heinrich Olbers.

Movement of galaxies. In the early 1900's, astronomers analyzed light from stars in distant
galaxies. They passed this light through a prism, which broke it up into a rainbowlike band of
colors called a spectrum (plural spectra). At one end of the spectrum of visible light is red, the
color with the longest wavelength (distance between successive wave crests). At the other end
is violet, which has the shortest wavelength. The spectrum of light sent out by any star has
bright and dark lines that indicate the composition of the star's outer layers and atmosphere.

The astronomers then compared the spectra of the light from the stars in the distant galaxies
with spectra of similar stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. They discovered that the
spectral lines of the distant stars are closer to the red end of the spectrum than are the
corresponding lines in the light from our neighboring stars. The astronomers concluded that
this redshift is caused by the distant galaxies moving rapidly away from the Milky Way.
Calculations of the speeds of various galaxies indicate that the universe is expanding and that
all galaxies began moving away from one another 10 billion to 20 billion years ago.

Radio waves in space. In 1965, astronomers detected faint radio waves throughout the sky.
These waves are similar to waves that would have been received from an extremely hot object
moving rapidly away from the earth. The discovery of the radio waves thus reinforced the idea
that the universe is expanding. The waves are also evidence for the big bang, a hot, explosive
beginning of the universe 10 billion to 20 billion years ago.
Abundant helium. About 76 percent of the mass of the universe is hydrogen, 24 percent is
helium, and the remaining small fraction of 1 percent consists of all other chemical elements.
Stars make helium nuclei by fusing (joining) hydrogen nuclei in their hot cores. But the
universe has not existed long enough for stars to have produced a 24 percent concentration of
helium. Thus, the universe as a whole must once have been extremely hot and dense.

Star ages. Astronomers have calculated the age of the oldest stars in the Milky Way. These
stars reside in groups called globular clusters. All the stars in a globular cluster form at about
the same time. Clusters that are relatively old have a higher proportion of old stars called red
giants than do younger clusters. Thus, by analyzing the light from clusters, astronomers have
been able to calculate the ages of the oldest stars. The calculations indicate that the stars in
the oldest globular clusters are 12 billion to 16 billion years old.

The future of the universe. Astronomers have developed models (mathematical descriptions)
that represent the universe as expanding, contracting, oscillating (expanding then contracting),
or static (neither expanding nor contracting). The universe is presently expanding, but its
distant future depends on its present density.

Suppose all the matter detected to date is all that exists. There would be an average of about
one atom of hydrogen in 1 cubic yard (0.76 cubic meter) of space. The universe would be
open. It would continue to expand without limit. Eventually, all stars would exhaust the energy
that makes them shine.

But suppose the universe contains large amounts of dark matter, material that has not yet
been detected. If the average density of matter in space were as much as 10 atoms of
hydrogen per cubic yard, the universe would be closed. In perhaps 20 billion to 40 billion years,
the expansion would stop. The galaxies would then start to come together again, and matter
would approach infinite density. This collapse might be followed by another period of
expansion, and so on without limit.

Other theories. Some scientists think there was no big bang. According to the steady state
theory, matter is continuously created. The new matter forms galaxies, replacing galaxies that
move to infinite distances. Other scientists suggest that the big bang theory is basically correct,
but that the universe underwent an early period of rapid expansion called inflation.

Contributor: Kenneth Brecher, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Boston University.