Grand Tour of the Universe

1
Grand Tour of the Universe
2
Outline

• Introduction
• The Scientific Method
• Numbers, Large and Small
• Light Years
• Distance Scales
• Time Scales
• A Grand Tour

3
Introduction

• The Scientific Method
• Observe
• Create hypotheses
• Test and discard if test fails
• Construct theories

4
Numbers, Large and Small

• Some Huge Numbers
• Earths population 6 billion
  (6,000,000,000)
• Bill Gates worth 60 billion.
  (60,000,000,000)
• US Federal budget 2.0 trillion
  (2,000,000,000,000)

5
Numbers, Large and Small II

• Some Small Numbers
• Size of an atomOne ten thousand millionth of a
  meter
• Size of a nucleusOne thousand trillionth of a
  meter

6
Numbers, Large and Small III

• Scientific Notation
• Earths population 6 x 109
• Bill Gates worth 6 x 1010
• US Federal budget 2.0 x 1012
• Size of atom 10-10 m
• Size of nucleus 10-15 m

7
Light Years

• The Speed of Light
• Light travels at very nearly 300,000 km per
  second (in vacuum).
• A Light Year
• In one year light travels a distance of
• 3600 x 24 x 365 x 300,000 km.
• That is, 9.46 x 1012 km 1 Light Year (ly)

8
Distance Scales
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Fig 1-1, p. 2
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Grand Tour
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Fig 1-4, p.5
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p.1
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From Near Space To Deep
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Jupiter and Io
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Fig 1-14, p.11
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Star Birth
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The Red Giant
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Fig 1-8, p.7
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Fig 1-7, p.6
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Fig 1-10, p.7
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Fig 1-11, p.8
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Fig 1-13, p.13
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Andromeda