The Universe’s BIG questions 1. How do we know what’s out there? 2. Is there life elsewhere?
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Transcript of The Universe’s BIG questions 1. How do we know what’s out there? 2. Is there life elsewhere?
The Universe’s BIG questions 1. How do we know what’s out there?
2. Is there life elsewhere?
3. Where did the universe come from?
How we know distances
How we know what things are made of
How we know motions
NASA’s SpitzerSpace Telescope
European SpaceAgency KeplerTelescope (planned)
Southern AfricanLarge Telescope
Very Large TelescopeIn Chile
Nearest stars D=10 to 1000 light years
Our solar system (vastly oversized)
Center of Milky WayD=25,000 light years
Andromeda GalaxyD=1 million light years
Clusters of galaxiesD=100 million light years
Most distant galaxies(edge of observable universe)D=13 billion light years
Is there life elsewhere?
100 Billion stars in the Milky Way
100,000,000
If 1/10 have planets -> 10,000,000 systems with planetsIf 10 planets per system -> 100,000,000 planets!If 1/100 have planets with right conditions -> 1,000,000 possible planetsIf 1/100 actually have life develop -> 10,000 possible planets with life?
?We simply don’t know yet.
Where did the Universe come from?
Chance?
Or Purpose?
In the beginning, the Lord God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formlessvoid and darkness covered the face of the deep. Then God said “Let there be light”, and therewas light. And God saw the the light was good. … And God saw everything that he had made,and it was very good. - Book of Genesis , 4000 B.C.
The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hand. – Book of Psalms, 2000 B.C.
There is a thing confusedly formed, born before heaven and earth, silent and void, it stands alone and does not change. I know not its name, so I style it ‘the way’’. I give it the Makeshift name of “The Great’’. - China, 500 B.C.
In the beginning, the heavens and the earth were still one, and all was chaos. The universe itself was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself….Pan Gu awoke…took up a broad ax to crack open the egg. … When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind, is voice the thunder.One eye became the moon, the other the sun. - China (ca. 200 )
….several Hindu creation stories….
and in some traditions, the universe is timeless, without beginning or end.
Time ago
13 Billion yr
12 Billion yr
8 Billion yr
Present
Augustine
In the beginning were created only the germs or causes of the forms of life….
Johannes Kepler
“…Oh God, I am thinking thy thoughts after thee.”
James Clerk Maxwell
And God said….
· B= 0 x B = 0J + 00 E/t· E = 1/0 x E = -B/t
…and there was light.
Blaise Pascal
Who will follow these marvelous processes? The Author of these wonders understands them…Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place andtime been allotted to me…?
Steven Hawking
“Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? …. What breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”