Scribd
Upload
43 views8 pages

Universe Nature

Uploaded by

bharat singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
43 views8 pages

Universe Nature

Uploaded by

bharat singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 8

NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE

Each culture has its own stories about the sky and the stars. In ancient
China, people generally believed that the sky or the heaven was important but
mythical. Hence, there were serious and detailed observational records, but no
significant models for predictions.

In contrast, around 600 B.C., Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus had


already proposed the universe is rational and could be understood by humans.
Around 400 B.C., Plato claimed that heaven is perfect and circle is the most
perfect form. Thus, the heaven is in uniform circular motion with the Earth at the
center. This is the beginning of the geocentric model.

Around 140 A.D., Ptolemy proposed his refined geocentric model. (He
proposed many refinements. In the Ptolemaic universe, planet moves in a small
circle called an epicycle, and the center of the epicycle moves along a larger
circle around the Earth. The centers of the epicycles of Mercury and Venus must
lie on the line joining the Earth and the Sun. Stars are fixed on an outermost
sphere.

This model gives predictions on the positions of the planets within a few
degrees from the actual positions. This was generally accepted and the Ptolemaic
model dominated the western world for about 1,500 years.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) proposed the heliocentric model:


the center of the universe is the Sun, not the Earth. The Earth is just another
planet orbiting around the Sun and it no longer has a special place (the center)
in the heaven. This model is simple and elegant and it predicts the retrograde
motion of planets. However the prediction of this model is about as good as the
Ptolemaic, the Copernican model was not commonly accepted at that time.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was a great defender of the heliocentric
model. He was the first person who used a telescope to observe the sky. This
was the first time that a person used an instrument to enhance one's observing
capability.

Galileo had four major discoveries:


1. The mountain terrain on the Moon.
2. The sunspots. These two discoveries proved that the heaven is not
perfect.
3. Four satellites orbiting around Jupiter. So, there are other "centers" in the
heaven. The four satellites are now called the Galilean satellites.
4. Venus goes through a full set of phases, proving that it must orbit around
the Sun, not the center of the epicycle.

In the late 16th century, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) measured the


positions of the planets almost every day. The accumulated large amount
of data allowed his assistant and his successor Johannes Kepler (1571-
1630) to write down his three Kepler's laws.

The Kepler's first law states that the orbits of the planets around the Sun are
ellipses with the Sun at one focus. One way to draw an ellipse is to pin down
the ends of a string, then use a pencil to stretch out the string. The curve drawn
is an ellipse and the positions of the two pins are the foci.
The Kepler's second law states that a line from a planet to the Sun
sweeps over equal areas in equal intervals of time. This means when the planet
is nearer to the Sun, it moves faster.

The Kepler's third law states that the square of a planet's orbital period
is proportional to the cube of its average distance from the Sun.

(Period) = (Constant) x (Average Distance)


2 3

The constant in this equation is the same for any objects orbiting around
the Sun, including planets, comets and artificial satellites. But if we consider the
Moon or artificial satellites around the Earth, we have to use another constant.

Kepler did not know the reasons behind his three laws. He just deduced
them from the observation data. Issac Newton (1642-1727) provided the
theoretical basis, which means he deduced the three laws. Newton was the
founder of modern physics. He wrote down the first theory of gravitation, one of
his many important discoveries.

According to his theory, there is an attractive force between any two


massive bodies. The pen, for example, falls to the ground because the pen and
the Earth attract each other. If the masses of the two bodies are M and M and
1 2

the distance between them is r, then the force F is equal to

F=GM M /r1 2
2

where G is the gravitational constant, which is a very small number. It's why
we can't feel the attracting gravitational force between, say, two persons.

It is, therefore, not difficult to understand why the Moon orbits around the
Earth. If the Earth was not there, the Moon would travel in a straight line, that
is, fly away. The Earth and the Moon attract each other, so the Moon "falls" to
the Earth, just like a pen does. This falling keeps the Moon in its orbit. Similarly,
the Earth and other planets "fall" to the Sun constantly.

Newton's gravitational theory also predicts that in general, the orbit of an


object can be any of the four conic sections: circle, ellipse, parabola and
hyperbola; as well as the straight line. Conic sections get their names because
they take the shapes of the cross sections of a cone. We have found some
comets in parabolic or hyperbolic orbits.

AGE OF THE UNIVERSE

The Universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety


of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical
laws and constants that govern them. Current interpretations of astronomical
observations indicate that the age of the Universe is 13.73 (± 0.12) billion years,
and that the diameter of the observable Universe is at least 93 billion light years,
or 8.80 × 10 meters. According to general relativity, space can expand with no
26

intrinsic limit on its rate; thus, two galaxies can separate more quickly than the
speed of light if the space between them grows. It is uncertain whether the size
of the Universe is finite or infinite.

According to the prevailing scientific model of the Universe, known as the


Big Bang, the Universe expanded from an extremely hot, dense phase called the
Planck epoch, in which all the matter and energy of the observable Universe was
concentrated. Since the Planck epoch, the Universe has been expanding to its
present form. Several independent experimental measurements support this
theoretical expansion and, more generally, the Big Bang theory. Recent
observations indicate that this expansion is accelerating because of the dark
energy, and that most of the matter and energy in the Universe is
fundamentally different from that observed on Earth and not directly observable.
The imprecision of current observations has hindered predictions of the ultimate
fate of the Universe.
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a hypothetical
form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to increase the rate of
expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most popular way to explain recent
observations that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating rate.
In the standard model of cosmology, dark energy currently accounts for 74% of
the total mass-energy of the universe.

This high-resolution image of the Hubble ultra deep field, from the Hubble space telescope
includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colors. The smallest, reddest galaxies, about
100, are some of the most distant galaxies to have been imaged by an optical telescope, existing
at the time shortly after the Big Bang.

COMPOSITION OF THE UNIVERSE

Determining how the elements were created - the field of nucleosynthesis


- draws from a wide range of studies: from the Big Bang to the formation and
evolution of our solar system. Light elements (those up to Lithium on the
periodic table) were mainly created in the Big Bang. Measurement of the
abundances of these elements can give scientists important clues to the nature
and evolution of the early Universe. In particular, measurement of the ratio of
the normal isotope of hydrogen to its heavier isotope known as deuterium
provides important insight into primordial nucleosynthesis.

All other elements are products of nuclear reactions occurring in stars and
supernova explosions. With certain exceptions, we have a comprehensive
understanding of how a star evolves, as it converts hydrogen and helium into
heavier elements. These heavy elements are disseminated into the Universe by
stellar winds and supernova explosions.
All components of the universe, including the distant stars are all made up
of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are bound together
into nuclei and atoms are nuclei surrounded by a full complement of electrons.
Hydrogen is composed of one proton and one electron. Helium is composed of
two protons, two neutrons and two electrons. Carbon is composed of six
protons, six neutrons and six electrons. Heavier elements, such as iron, lead and
uranium, contain even larger numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons.
Astronomers like to call all material made up of protons, neutrons and electrons
"baryonic matter".

Until about 30 years ago, astronomers thought that the universe was
composed almost entirely of this "baryonic matter", ordinary atoms. However, in
the past few decades, there has been ever more evidence accumulating that
suggests there is something in the universe that can not be seen – a new form of
matter.

In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is hypothetical matter that is


undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from
gravitational effects on visible matter. Dark matter is postulated to explain the
flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies and other evidence of "missing mass" in the
universe. According to present observations of structures larger than galaxies,
dark matter and dark energy account for the vast majority of the mass in the
observable universe. The observed phenomena which imply the presence of dark
matter include the rotational speeds of galaxies, orbital velocities of galaxies in
clusters, gravitational lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters such as
the Bullet Cluster, and the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and
clusters of galaxies.
HST image of a gravitational lens

You might also like