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An introduction to Astronomy
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GABRIEL THIEL
2013
UNIVERSE AND OTHER
WONDERS In what world do we live?
SCIENCE
C O L E G I O A M A N E C E R Z O N A 1 2
2
INDEX
3 UNIVERSE
3 GENERAL DEFINITION
3 ORIGIN
4 ORIGIN OF STARS
5 SPIRAL GALAXY
5 ELLYPTICAL GALAXY
6 IRREGULAR GALAXY
6 OUR OWN GALAXY
7 ORIGIN OF PLANETS
8 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
10 HOW WE STUDY OUR UNIVERSE
10 NAKED-EYE OBSERVATION
11 OPTICAL TELESCOPES
12 STATE-OF-THE-ART IN OPTICAL TELESCOPES
13 NON-VISIBLE LIGHT TELESCOPES
13 CLASSIFICATION BY LOCATION
16 TELESCOPIC IMAGES OF DIFFERENT TELESCOPE TYPES
17 OTHER WAYS OF STUDYING THE UNIVERSE
17 MANNED FLIGHTS
19 UNMANNED SPACE EXPLORATION
21 IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMICAL STUDIES
3
Universe GENERAL DEFINITION
From the point of view of astronomy, the universe is all
existing matter, energy and space considered as a whole.
ORIGIN
The most accepted theory about the origin of the
universe is the “Big Bang”. It says that all existing matter
was concentrated in a point of infinite density, and
received an external injection of enormous energy (I
personally believe that it was injected by God, as the
Catholic Creed affirms when saying “I believe in God, the
Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”). This
energy impulsed all matter in all directions, and even
now, the universe is growing in size because of this. It
may have looked like this:
4
ORIGIN OF STARS
Not all matter traveled at the same speed after the “big
bang”, so in some places, it formed bodies of high density
of helium and hydrogen that had more and more
temperature, as the pressure increased, until the atomic
nuclei began to fuse, relasing enormous amounts of
energy, perceived as heat and light. The oldest stars
began this process from 10 to 14 billion years ago. The
age of our own star, the sun, is of about 5 billion years.
They group in galaxies (groups of stars) with different
shapes:
5
SPIRAL GALAXY:
ELLYPTICAL GALAXY
6
IRREGULAR GALAXY
OUR OWN GALAXY
In the following image, we see the Milky Way, the name
given to the galaxy where we live. It was given this name
because it looks as if someone has spilled milk in the sky.
The text on the image speaks about “LIGTH YEARS” and it
is a very useful measuring unit when speaking about the
universe, because distances are so big, that expressing
them in normal units would present us with enormous
numbers. Therefore, we use Light Year which is the
distance traveled by light in one year. Remember that in
just one second, light travels almost 300,000 kilometers
(299,792.458 if you need the exact number).
7
ORIGIN OF PLANETS
We already spoke about matter condensing into stars.
During this process, the matter is spinning like water
going down a drain, sending some matter away. The
matter that is sent away start to condense into solid
objects, and once their gravity is strong enough, they
grow into large bodies. Some of them become planets,
the less massive ones become satellites and the other
ones become asteroids, meteroids and comets.
The planets remain spinning around the star that was
being formed with them, in elliptic orbits, forming what is
8
known as SOLAR SYSTEMS. We already saw the position
of our solar system on the Milky Way.
Following, you will see a representation of our solar
system, which is formed by 8 planets and includes also 4
exoplanets. One of them is nearer to the sun than Jupiter
and the other 3 are Pluto and two other farther ones.
The formal definition of an exoplanet is: a big rock that
does not have the ideal size to be classified as a planet
(more on this after the image) and its surface is generally
a mix of frozen gasses.
Our Solar System
9
In August, 2006 the International Astronomical Union
(IAU) defined 3 conditions to declare a heavenly body a
planet:
It has to orbit a sun
It has to be a circular objet and keep that shape
His gravity has to attract almost every thing that
passes near it
The names of the planets than orbit around the sun are,
from nearer to farthest from the sun:
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
The exoplanets are:
- Pluto
- Eris
- Ceres
10
HOW WE STUDY THE
UNIVERSE NAKED-EYE OBSERVATION
Humankind has always been fascinated by the movements of
heavenly bodies. Many of them can be observed with our own
eyes by just simply looking at the sky. The stars and planets have
regular orbits. Therefore, their positions can be predicted if one
observes them carefully, making annotations from year to year.
That is why Astronomy was the first formal science.
11
OPTICAL TELESCOPES
The earliest known working telescope appeared in 1,608
and is credited to Hans Lippershey. It magnified the
image 3 times. Galileo heard of this device in June 1,609
and dedicated himself to its improvement. By 1,610 he
built a telescope which magnified 33 times. With this
telescope he discovered the satellites of Jupiter and
described their movements. He also proved the rotation
of the sun on its axis and established the Copernican
System, that said that the planets revolved around the
sun and not around the earth, as stated by Ptolemy.
12
STATE-OF-THE-ART IN OPTICAL TELESCOPES
Using very advanced technologies, the Very Large
Telescope was built in the Atacama Desert in Chile,
chosen by its clean atmosphere. It consists of four
individual large telescopes, complemented by four
auxiliary ones. It operates at visible and infrared
wavelenghts. It lets the operator to detect objects four
billion times fainter than what can be detected with the
naked eye. It is the most productive ground-based facility
for astronomy, with only the Hubble Space Telescope
genrating more scientific papers among facilities
operating at visible wavelenghts. The following image
lets us see the Very Large Telescope:
13
NON-VISIBLE LIGHT TELESCOPES
When it was discovered that there were many different
types of energy that could be detected coming from
space, different types of telescopes were built. The
following table shows the different kinds of
electromagnetic energy that can be detected by
telescopes:
Name Wavelength
Gamma ray less than 0.01 nm
X-Ray 0.01 to 10 nm
Ultraviolet 10 nm - 400 nm
Visible 390 nm - 750 nm
Infrared 750 nm - 1 mm
Microwave 1 mm - 1 meter
Radio 1 mm - km
CLASSIFICATION BY LOCATION
Telescopes can be also be classified by location into
Ground Telescope or Space Telescope. In the following
pages, several examples will be shown.
14
VERY LARGE ARRAY RADIO TELESCOPE
Location: Socorro, New Mexico, United States
X-ray Space-based telescope named Einstein Observatory
15
Near ultraviolet, visible and near infrared Space
Telescope Hubble
16
TELESCOPIC IMAGES OF DIFFERENT TELESCOPE TYPES
The same heavenly body, seen through different types of
telescopes, can give different types of information, giving
us a better understanding of the universe. The following
collection of images illustrate this. Under each image, the
type of energy measured and the name of the telescope
is shown.
17
OTHER WAYS OF STUDYING THE UNIVERSE
Besides looking at the universe, humankind also learns by
touching, weighing and sampling the universe. We do
that in our daily life, when for example, after looking at a
cake, we take a slice, smell and eat it. Following the same
principle, the exploration of our universe has progressed
by sending spaceships to space, the moon and other
planets in manned and unmanned flights.
MANNED FLIGHTS
People in space can learn a lot about themselves,
materials and the universe. There is no atmosphere to
distort the view of space and they enjoy the absence of
gravity, allowing them to make many experiments that
are impossible on earth. Also, by landing on the moon,
astronauts were able to bring samples of lunar soil to
earth, giving them the chance of studying them in depth.
In the following pages, several images of manned space
explorations will be shown.
18
Astronaut taking samples of the moon
Scientists making experiments inside the International
Space Station floating in space
19
Astronauts working on the outside of the International
Space Station. A very interesting tour of the inside of the
International Space Station can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doN4t5NKW-k
UNMANNED SPACE EXPLORATION
Very important experiments can also be performed by
machines that land on other planets, such as the ones
sent to Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander landed on Mars
on May 25, 2008 and was designed to study the history of
water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic’s
20
ice-rich soil. The Mars Science Laboratory’s rover vehicle
named Curiosity landed on August 6, 2012. Its mission is
designed to assess whether Mars ever had an
environment able to support small life forms called
microbes.
Phoenix Mars Lander deck after deliveries of several
Martian soils samples to instruments. In the center and
right foreground is the Thermal and Evolved-Gas
Analyzer. On the left is the Microscopy, Electrochemistry
and Conductivity Analyzer.
21
IMPORTANCE OF ASTRONOMICAL STUDIES
We certainly have very urgent problems waiting to be
solved on earth, but astronomy is helping us in many
ways, so it is not a waste of time. I will mention the
main ones:
- Our calendar.
- Much of today’s mathematics.
- Astronomy’s need for computational power drove
the development of many of the earliest electronic
computers.
- The satellite network that gives us communications
and other services such as GPS is possible thanks to
the fundamental knowledge of gravity and orbits
discovered by astronomers.
- Image-processing techniques developed by
astronomers now are part of the medical imaging
systems that allow non-invasive examiation of
patients’ internal organs.
- In sum, astronomy has been a cornerstone of
technological progress throughout history, has
much to contribute in the future and offers all
humans a fundamental sense of our place in an
unimaginable vast and exciting universe.