The Know Universe

“Space is big, Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the shop’s, but that’s just peanuts to space!

ContentBig Bang Expansion Size ShapeAgeOrbits PurposeGlossary Bibliography

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In these pages you will discover what the universe consist of

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In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

The big bang theory is widely accepted fact to, it’s a very good model to describe what happened, but doesn’t tell us why! The theory is that there was a huge explosion from a singularity, but what caused this singularity is still a great mystery. Was it natural or divine intervention? This is what the scientist at the large hadron collider in sern are trying to work out by firing subtonic particles at high speeds at each other in the hope to be able to recreate the events at the beginning of the universe.

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The Big Bang

At the begining theUniverse was 9,999,999,727Degrees C

The known universe rapidly expanded from this singularity, in the first five billion years it was rapidly expanding, but since then it’s expansion has slowed down, this theory further proves the idea of a ‘big bang’ as all the different galaxies are moving away from each other. It is now theorized that the known universe is 150 billion light years across, but is still slowly expanding. This expansion also means that it is cooling even more. It is theorized that at the point of the ‘Big Bang’ it was 10 billion kelvin, with in ten minuets it was 1 billion kelvin, this shows the cooling nature of the universe after the explosion.

To day the universe is 2.725 kelvin, which is equal to -270.425 degrees C.The universe was extremely hot and now is very cold!

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Expansion Of The Universe

Time

The Universe is881,774,972,000,000,000,000,000 Miles Across

When astronomers speak of the universe as open, closed or flat, they meant that the density of the universe was either so great that it would eventually recollapse because of gravitational attraction. Or that its density was so low that gravity would be insufficient to keep it from expanding forever. Or that its density was so delicately adjusted that, eventually, it would neither expand nor contract.Open, closed and flat actually refer to the shape of space-time itself. Impossible to picture in three spatial dimensions, but in two-dimensional, A closed universe would be represented

Size Of The Universe

with positive curvature that resemble the surface of a sphere (on which parallel lines converge). A open universe would be represented with a Two-dimensional space with negative curvature which would be like the surface of a Pringle’s potato chip (on which parallel lines diverge). A flat two-dimensional universe would resemble a sheet of paper (on which parallel lines stay parallel).It is now theorized that the known universe is 150 billion light years across, but is still slowly expanding. This expansion also means that it is cooling even more.

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The Universe is a large flat area, with Galaxies that are roughly shaped like a fried eggs

Many independent observations indicate that the universe is in fact flat. Similarly galaxy’s with in the universes are flat and shape is similar to that of a fried egg, the yoke being the middle area and the white being the spiral arms. Moreover, inflation theory, the notion that a small portion of the universe briefly underwent very rapid expansion shortly after the Big Bang, which is favored by cosmologists not least because it explains a great many otherwise puzzling things, such as the remarkable smoothness and homogeneity of regions of space that

have never been in contact, requires a flat universe. But if the universe is flat and the density of matter is low including visible matter, invisible matter, and ordinary energy something must provide the missing density. That something is the cosmological constant, or some other form of dark energy. Such invisible energy could propel even a closed universe to eternal expansion, making it even bigger than it’s nature. If the cosmological constant really is constant, the expansion of the universe will accelerate indefinitely, making everything further apart & colder.

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Shape Of The Universe

Our Solar System is around4,567,000,000 years old

By combining observations with the laws of physics, from the accumulated effort of a dozen generation, of scientists, what have we learned about the age of the universe?Logically, that the universe must be older than the Earth, the Moon, and our solar system. The oldest rocks on all the Earth’s continents are between 3.6 and 4.0 billion years old while the oldest mineral grains on Earth, found in sedimentary rocks, are 4.3 to 4.4 billion years old. Clearly the earth must be at least this old. Lunar rocks, brought back to Earth by the Apollo astro¬nauts, have radiometric ages of

4.4 to 4.5 billion years. The oldest meteorites in our solar system, which may be among the very first objects that formed in our solar system, are 4.567 billion years old. The universe must, of course, be older than its contents, so this gives it a minimum age of 4.6 billion years old. But we can do better than that. At the end of their lifetimes as normal stars will become one of three things; a black hole, neutron star or a white dwarf. From the basic physics of white dwarfs, we can calculate the rate at which a white dwarf will cool off; also looking back at the past and calculate how much warmer today’s white dwarf was

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Age Of The Universe

yesterday, last year, 1 million years ago, or 10 billion years ago. The temperatures of the coolest and oldest white dwarf stars in the Milky Way Galaxy today allows to calculate backwards in time to determine that they have been cooling for at least 11 billion years and perhaps as much as 13 billion years. Since the galaxy had to form first, and then some stars held to form, live, and die before they could begin to cool as white dwarfs, the age of the universe must be at least a little bit greater than 11 to 13 billion years. From this result, we do not yet know the age of the universe, but we can say With confidence that if the universe

were significantly older than 13 billion years, we would find white dwarfs that are substantially cooler than the coolest ones we have found. If no such supercool white dwarfs exist, which it appears that they don’t, the universe is most likely only a little bit older than 13 billion years.

From studying stars the most massive stars are also the most luminous stars. This relationship between mass and luminosity is a consequence of the force of gravity: more mass in the same volume of space generates a stronger compressive force. The largest stars squeeze themselves harder. To put the brakes on gravity squashing stars into infinitely small volumes, stars must find a way to push back, and they do this by generating heat from nuclear fusion reactions. The largest stars generate greater inward gravitational forces than the smaller ones, so they must generate more thermal pressure than lower, mass Stars in order to resist gravity. Massive stars use up their nuclear fuel

more quickly than smaller stars. In other words because smaller Stars are less wasteful with their fuel, they can live longer. This correlation between mass, luminosity, and the maximum lifetime of a star leads directly to another method for determining the age of the universe.The oldest globular clusters in the Milky Way have ages of about 13 billion years. The Milky Way and the universe itself must he at least a few hundred million years older than these oldest globular clusters, based on the amount of the element beryllium that the latter contain. Reassuringly, this age is very consistent with the age obtained from the cooling ages of white dwarfs.

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Hubble’s constantis a ratio expressing the rate of expansion of the universe

The universe is expanding, and the rate at which it is expanding provides another technique by which astronomers can estimate the age of the universe. All galaxies outside of our immediate neighborhood appear to be moving away from us.Astronomers have now detected Cepheid variable stars in galaxies out to distances of 30 megaparsecs (I 00 million light-years). The brightness of these Cepheid’s permit us to calculate directly the distances to the host galaxies of the Cepheid’s.Assuming that the expansion rate of space has been constant over the history of the universe, which all evidence suggests is very close to a correct assumption, the most accurate measurements of

the value of the Hubble constant yield an age of the universe of 13.5 billion years, with a margin of error of about 2 billion years. When including all of our understanding of dark matter and energy, we recognize that the expansion rate of space has not been perfectly constant for the last 13 billion years, and we get an age estimate for the universe of about 13 billion years, with the same 2 billion year margin of error.It can be concluded that the Hubble constant derived age of the universe is in the range from 11 to 15.5 billion years, which is consistent with the answer obtained from white dwarf cooling times and turn-off points for stars in globular clusters.

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The Universe is believed to be around 13,700,000,000 years old

Now we have three different, completely independent methods that place the age of the universe at a little more than 13 billion years, with strong evidence that an age of 13.5 to 14 billion years is very likely. Finally, cosmologists have teased an estimate for the age of the universe out of the best maps of the cosmic microwave background, the remnant signal of the Big Bang. To do this, they must know the total energy content of the universe, which is obtain from measurements of the flatness of the universe, the current and past expansion rates of the universe. Also all the matter of the universe

must be know, which includes the total amount of dark energy and dark matter. From these results, cosmologists can state with reasonable confidence that the age of the universe is likely between 13.5 and 14 billion years. Now we have four independent methods for deriving an age for the universe, and all four yield a consistent answer. If the age derived by anyone of these methods were presented by itself, we might reasonably wonder whether to believe the claim. However taken together, gives extremely strong evidence that the universe is indeed 13.5 to 14 billion years of age.

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This whole Big Shebang got started just a bit over 13.5 billion years ago,as we can still see the left over light from the origanal expanstion, giving cosmologists reason to say with confidence that the age of the universe is in the vicinity of 13.7 billion years. The trials and errors, painstaking observations and fantastic insights that have led to this answer amount to one of mankind’s most impressive intellectual accomplishments.

The pull of gravity is stronger the closer you are to the sun. So if the earth was to be bumped towards the sun, the sun would have a greater effect and pull earth furthering in, spiralling to its inevitable doom. But we are evidence that it doesn’t spiral into doom.Why?when it gets pushed in, the sons Paul speeds it up a bit too, so gravity has a stronger effect, but the travels faster that it would shoot and end up further from the sun. Solar sons Paul slows it down in the process at which point the turns back and start the cycle all over again.The two effects of speeding up and stretch because facial attraction are perfectly balanced, so the Earth

days in its orbit (like a mole stays in a bowl) even if it gets knocked about it, this balance is special.Highly dependent on the strength of the gravitational force and number of Dimensions we live in. These stable orbits only exist in a 3D universe, however if gravity was steeper as in a 4D universe, we could never orbit the sun because we’d get pulled in, without gaining enough speed to escape and spiral into our doom.If we lived in less dimensions, gravity would be tamer, so we had never orbit the sun because there’s not enough of an effect on us, so we passed by with only a slightly curved path. Luckily we do live in a 3-D universe with a stable orbit.

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Nature Of The Solar System

If the goals of the universe was to create humans, then the cosmos was really bad at it

What is the purpose of the universe?I’m not sure, anyone who gives a defensive response to the question is gaining access to knowledge not based on current world foundations. This remarkable persistent way of thinking common to most religions and some branches of philosophy has failed badly at past efforts to understand and thereby predict the operations of the universe and our place within it.To ensure that the universe has a purpose implies a desired outcome, but who would do the desiring, and what would be a desired outcome? That carbon-based life is inevitable, that sentiment primates

are lies pinnacle. Of course humans were not around to ask these questions for 99.9999% of cosmic history. So if the purpose of the universe was to create humans, then the cosmos was inefficient about it.If a further purpose was to create a fertile cradle for life, then our cosmos environment has got an odd way to show it. Life on Earth has been 3.5 billion years in existence, has been persistently assaulted by natural sources of mayhem, death and destruction.Ecological devastation caused by volcanoes, climate change, tsunamis, storms and in particular killer asteroids

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What Is The Purpose Of The Universe?

has left extinct 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on earth. Human life itself, if religious, purpose of life is to serve God. But if one of the billions of bacteria found in the human body, was says that the purpose of human life is to create a dark stable place for them to live. So in the absence of human hubris, the universe looks more and more random.When ever events happen at are in our best interest, are as numerous as events that could easily kill us, that intent is heart, if not impossible to assert.

So while I can’t claim from a short whether or not the universe has a purpose, the case against it is strong and visible to anyone who sees it first as it is, than as we wish it to be.

- Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hubble’s constantA ratio expressing the rate of apparent expansion of the universe, equal to the velocity at which a typical galaxy is receding from Earth divided by its distance from Earth. It’s value is 74.3 ± 2.1 (km/s)/Mpc

Light yearsA light year is how far light can travel in a vacuam in a year.light traves at a speed of 671,000,000 miles an hour 1 light year = 5,878,499,810,000 miles150 billion light year = 8.81774972000000000000000 miles

Cepheid variable starsA Cepheid star is a member of a class of very luminous variable stars. The strong direct relationship between a Cepheid variable’s luminosity and pulsation periodsecures for Cepheids their status as important standard candles for establishing the Galactic and extragalactic distance scales.

White DwarfsAre very dense; a white dwarf ’s mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy.

Glossary

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Based around In Our Time on BBC Radio 4

Key Facts;http://www.futurepointindia.com/articles/miscellaneous/the-universe-some-important-facts.aspxhttp://www.gemini.edu/node/259http://www.xtmagazine.com/the-ultimate-kepler-page/http://www.universetoday.com/37927/interesting-facts-about-the-universe/

Opening/Closing quotes;Douglas Adams’s; Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Universehttp://bookriot.com/2012/05/25/the-42-best-lines-from-douglas-adams-the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-series/

Age ChapterHow Old Id Is The Universe? by David A. WeintraubPages used 360 - 364Publisher: Princeton University Press (15 Nov 2010)

Purpose Chapter, featuring Neil deGrasse Tysonhttp://youtu.be/7pL5vzIMAhs

Images based around minutephysics on youtube.

Bibliography

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All you really need to know for the moment is that the universe is a lot more complicated than you might think, even if you start from a position of thinking it’s pretty damn complicated in the first place.