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Lecture 4 - A Model For The Universe

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4 views

Lecture 4 - A Model For The Universe

Uploaded by

Mad Nick
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 4 - A Model For The Universe

Starting with a Bang!


● Expansion implies the Universe began as a singularity 14 Billion years ago
● Universe born out of massive explosion
● Big Bang!
● Early Universe hot and dense!
● Universe expands
Expansion of the Universe
- Can’t directly observe the Big Bang or the ensuing expansion
- Indirectly “observed” from the behavior of distant galaxies
- Can make observable predictions

An expanding Universe will cool

● As the Universe Cools


- 1/10,000th of a second after the big bang
- Protons, neutrons, and electrons form
- 10s – 20 minutes after the big bang • Nuclear fusion reactions can occur to
create nuclei

After the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis


● Exact composition of Universe depends on expansion rate, proton-neutron ratio,
baryon-photon ratio

Testing the Model


● Can’t observe Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
- Early Universe so dense that photons are repeatedly absorbed or scattered
- Information lost!

380,000 Years: Time of Recombination\


- Universe has cooled to the point nuclei and electrons combine to form atoms

Cosmic Microwave Background

- Entire Universe was approximately


3000 K at time of recombination
• Infrared Light
- Expansion of Universe “stretches”
light to longer wavelengths
Key Take-Aways from the Big Bang Theory

1. Predicts an expanding Universe


2. Predicts abundances of elements in the early Universe
- Know the relative abundances and how they match to observations
- Don’t need to know exact reactions or reaction rates

3. Predicts a uniform microwave afterglow from the time of recombination


- Know why the CMB exists and why it is so uniform
- Don’t need to know exact times and temperatures

____________________________________

100-500 Myr : First Stars and Galaxies

100-500 Myr after Big Bang: First Supernovae Froms


- First generation of stars, made of only H and He, were very massive with short
lifetimes

Enrichment
● As stars live and die, the Universe becomes polluted with “heavy” elements
- Necessary for planet formation
- Necessary for organic molecules
- Necessary for life
● New stars form out of polluted material

Universal Enrichment
- Galactic recycling occurs throughout the Milky Way

Molecular Clouds
• Dense regions of gas in interstellar space

Dust in Molecular Clouds


• Grains of carbon and silicon
• Sand or soot
• Less than 0.001 mm in diameter
• Serve as formation sites for molecules

Organic Molecules
- Enrichment of giant molecular clouds with “heavy” elements
- Allows for formation of organic molecules via dust
How did our Solar System form?

Patterns of Motion
- Planets orbit Sun in Counter-clockwise direction
- Planets have nearly circular orbits
- Most planets rotate in counter-clockwise direction too

Two Types of Planets

Dwarf Planets
• Massive enough that their own gravity has made them spherical
• Orbit the Sun
• Have not cleared their orbit of other material

Asteroids
- Weakly bound rubble piles of rock and metal that orbit the Sun
- Large collection in asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
Comets
- Similar to asteroids, but with a significant amount of ice
- Typically found farther from the Sun
- Sometimes pass close to the Sun

Oort Cloud
- Tracing backwards the orbits of some comets reveal they have long orbital periods

Exceptions

Hypothesis 1: Close Encounter Model

Stellar Encounters
● Buffon (1745) suggested planets formed from debris due to a comet that collided with
the Sun
● Revised models suggested planets form from blobs of gas pulled from Sun due to a
close encounter with passing star
- Popular during early 20th Century

● An Incomplete Model

Hypothesis 2: The Nebular Theory


9,200 Myr - Our Birth Cloud Collapses
- After 9.2 Billion years of pollution, 2% of H and He converted to heavy elements
- Solar system born out of the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud/nebula
• Cold gas and dust
• Slowly rotating
• Collapse externally triggered
Gravity takes over
● Law of gravity ensures collapse continues
● As size of cloud decreases, force of gravity gets stronger
● Inverse square law
● Collapse initially spherically symmetric, until the effects of
- Heating
- Spinning
- Flattening

Linear Momentum
- Momentum: Mass x Velocity

Conservation of Angular Momentum


- Angular Momentum of Rotating Object • Mass x Size x Velocity

Flattening
- As clumps of gas and dust collide and merge, the resulting clump has average
velocity of the progenitor clumps

Protostar Formation
- Central core of cloud continues to collapse
- Collisions between molecules creates photons, which helps radiate away energy

Ignition:
● Gravity keeps compressing the protostar’s core
● Core temperatures exceed 10 million K
● Nuclear fusing begins
● Solar wind eventually clears remaining gas

Planet Formation from Planetesimals

The Frost Line


● The inner parts of disk are warmer than outer parts
● Inside frost line
- Rock, metal, gas
Outside frost line
● Rock, metal, gas, and ice
● Hydrogen compounds

Gas Accretion
● Gravity draws planetesimals and gas together to form planets
● Ices in the outer regions of the disk allow for the formation of large cores

Does the Nebular Theory explain observations of our Solar System?

Matching to Observations
● Orderly Motion
● Two types of planets

● Dwarf planets, asteroids, comets - Leftover planetesimals


● Asteroid Belt - A failed planet protected by Jupiter
● Kuiper Belt - Too low density to form anything
● Oort Cloud - Ejected by planetary interactions

Exceptions - Moons

How did of the Moon form?


● Moon formed along with Earth
● Moon formed separately and was later gravitationally captured
● Young molten Earth was spinning so rapidly that it split in two

Giant Impact Model


• The Moon was made out of material that accreted in Earth’s orbit after being blasted out of
Earth’s mantle
• Early Solar System potentially filled with several planet-sized bodies

Exceptions – Disorderly Motion


- Tilt of Uranus and Earth, as well as retrograde rotation of Venus can also be
explained by giant collisions

Nebular Theory consistent with Observations

Modifications to Nebular Theory


● Jets
● Planets in-between terrestrial and Jovian categories
- Accretion timescale vs expulsion of gas
- Exo-Jovian planets observed with eccentric orbits within frost line
● Migration

Planetary Migration
● Comets in Oort Cloud will have gained energy from planet interactions
● Drag force from gas
● Planet-planet interactions

Implications for Life Beyond Earth


● Other planetary systems should exist, with significant diversity
● Most of the Universe is older than the Sun/Earth

The Fine-Tuned Universe


● Expansion
- If too fast, galaxies won’t form
- If too slow, Universe would collapse in on itself
● Ratio of strengths of difference forces
- Multiverse
- Specialness
- Higher being

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