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The document discusses the expanding universe, detailing Hubble's Law, which states that galaxies are moving away from us at velocities proportional to their distances. It also covers the age of the universe, estimated at 13.8 billion years, and the observable universe's radius of approximately 46.6 billion light years. Additionally, it highlights the discovery of the universe's accelerated expansion, attributed to dark energy, which challenges previous beliefs about gravitational forces slowing down expansion.

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14 views

Astro+_+Lecture+U5_L2+_+Cosmology+2_+Expansion

The document discusses the expanding universe, detailing Hubble's Law, which states that galaxies are moving away from us at velocities proportional to their distances. It also covers the age of the universe, estimated at 13.8 billion years, and the observable universe's radius of approximately 46.6 billion light years. Additionally, it highlights the discovery of the universe's accelerated expansion, attributed to dark energy, which challenges previous beliefs about gravitational forces slowing down expansion.

Uploaded by

tysonj331
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Cosmology 2:

The Expanding
Universe
1. The Expanding Cosmos
2. Hubble’s Law
3. Age of the Universe
4. The Observable Universe
5. Accelerated Expansion

Daniel Morgan 2015-2020


The Doppler Effect is the phenomenon in which waves are either stretched or
compressed due to motion relative to the source. A compressed wave has a shorter
(more blue, or blueshifted) wavelength while a stretched wave has a longer (more
red, or redshifted) wavelength.

BLUESHIFT REDSHIFT
Hubble’s Next Discovery
After his discovery of galaxies, Edwin Hubble went
on to make another important discovery. Hubble
analyzed his measurements of galactic distances
based on Henrietta Swan-Leavitt's work on
Cepheid variables and combined it with
observations of galactic redshift made by Vesto Slipher
astronomer Vesto Slipher.
If a galaxy is redshifted, that means it is moving
away from us. If it is blueshifted, it is moving
toward us. Blueshifted galaxies are very rare --
they are all in either the local group or the Virgo
cluster, which the local group is moving toward.
Hubble discovered a proportionality between the
distance and the amount of redshift. In other
words, the greater the distance to a galaxy, the
faster it is moving away from us. This is known as Edwin Hubble
Hubble’s Law
Hubble's law is the name given for
the following observations:

1. Objects observed in deep


space have a redshift
indicating a recessional
velocity from Earth.
2. The velocity of galaxies
receding from Earth is
proportional to their distance
from the Earth.

To put it simply, distant objects are


moving away from us. The farther
The graph above depicts recessional
they are, the faster they are velocity of galaxies increasing with their
moving away from us. The speed distance from Earth.
at which they are moving away
The Big Bang
A Catholic priest and physicist named Georges
Lemaître realized that Hubble's Law and
General Relativity indicated that the universe
is expanding.
All of space is expanding in every direction,
which is causing distances between objects to
increase. Highly redshifted galaxies aren’t
necessarily moving through space away from
us -- they are receding from us because the
amount of space between us is growing.
Georges Lemaître realized that the universe’s
constant expansion meant that the universe
was smaller in the past. This led Lemaître to
propose what is now known as the Big Bang
Georges Lemaître, founder of the
theory. The Big Bang theory describes the Big Bang theory
universe expanding from a point of extremely
THE DOPPLER EFFECT z = redshift

REDSHIFT
Δ λ = change in λ
Δ λ = (observed λ -
emitted λ)
λ = emitted λ

v = recessional velocity
c = speed of light
Hubble’
v = recessional velocity in
km/s
H0 = the Hubble constant

s
d = distance in Mpc

Mpc stands for Megaparsecs


1 Mpc = 1,000,000 pc

Law pc stands for parsecs


1 pc = 3.26 ly

v = H0d
The Hubble
Constant
The Hubble constant is the rate
at which space is expanding.

(km/s/Mpc)
It has been revised steadily since

H0
the discovery of Hubble’s Law.

Over time, independent


estimates have been converging.
All recent studies, including ten Date
of them published in 2019, place
the value somewhere between
68 and 77. The graph above depicts the rapid
convergence of estimates for the
The current most widely used Hubble Constant (H0) from 1996 to
approximation is 70 km/s/Mpc. 2008.
The Hubble
Constant
The Hubble constant is the rate
at which space is expanding.

(km/s/Mpc)
It has been revised steadily since

H0
the discovery of Hubble’s Law.

Over time, independent


estimates have been converging.
All recent studies, including ten Date
of them published in 2019, place
the value somewhere between
68 and 77. The graph above depicts the rapid
convergence of estimates for the
The current most widely used Hubble Constant (H0) from 2000 to
approximation is 70 km/s/Mpc. 2020.
Age of the Universe
Astronomers determine the
approximate age of the universe
using Hubble’s constant to calculate
how long the universe has been
expanding.

The current best figure for the age of


the universe is 13.8 billion years.

For context, recall that our Solar


System has an age of approximately
4.5 billion.

The Sun is will begin evolving into a


red giant in about another 5 billion
years, and it become a white dwarf in
about 8 billion years.
The Observable
Universe
A common misconception is that the
observable universe, that is the part of
the universe we can see, has a radius of
13.8 billion light years. This is not so.
Due to universe expansion, the most
distant objects were much closer when
they emitted the light we see. Thus,
the observable universe is much larger.
The observable universe has a radius of
approximately 46.6 billion light years.
As time goes on, the number of distant
objects we see decreases. When their
recessional velocity is too great for us to
ever receive their light we say they have
pass the cosmological horizon.
Accelerating Expansion
Prior to 1998, it was believed that the gravity
of all objects in the universe would be slowing down
the expansion of the universe and would eventually
draw all matter back together again in a Big Crunch.
However, in 1998 two independent projects set out to
measure the rate at which the universe’s expansion
was slowing. They both used data from Type Ia
supernovae as standard candles (events with a
consistent and reliable luminosity). Instead they
discovered an unexpected acceleration in the
expansion of the universe.
The accelerating expansion of the universe is one of
astrophysics greatest mysteries. Until more can be
learned about it, the energy responsible for the
accelerating expansion is called dark energy.

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