UNIVERSE AND THE

SOLAR SYSTEM
FAYE MARION C. SEBASTIAN, RCh.
 TERMS TO KNOW:
• The study of the universe, planet’s
origin and members of solar system
ASTRONOMY
• Study of atmosphere and elements
that produce weather
METEOROLOGY
 TERMS TO KNOW:
• The study of our Earth
EARTH SCIENCE/GEOSCIENCE
• “Ordinary” matter consisting of
protons, electrons and neutrons that
comprises atoms, planets, stars,
galaxies and other bodies
BARYONIC MATTER
 TERMS TO KNOW:

• The distance light can travel in a year

LIGHT YEARS (9.46x1012 km)
• A nuclear fusion reaction responsible
for the energy produced by the stars
THERMONUCLEAR FUSION
4 PICS, 1 WORD:
ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
 ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

• How do we know the Big Bang happened?

• How do we know the Universe is

Expanding?

• What is the time frame of Universe

evolution?
 ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

• Creationism/Non-Scientific
• Scientific
STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION, AND AGE

• Comprises all space and time, and all

matter & energy
• 4.6% baryonic matter, 24% dark
matter, and 71.4% dark energy
• Dark matter may explain what may
holding galaxies together.
STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION, AND AGE

• Hydrogen, Helium, and Lithium are the

three most abundant elements
• Stars—building blocks of galaxies
Protostar
Thermonuclear reactions
STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION, AND AGE
STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION, AND AGE

Galaxy-clusters
of billions of
stars
Superclusters-
clusters of
galaxies
13.8 billion years old!
 EXPANDING UNIVERSE

• 1929—Edwin Hubble
• Discovery of the “redshift”
• Evidence for an expanding universe,
as predicted by Einstein’s Theory of
General Relativity
EXPANDING UNIVERSE
 DOPPLER EFFECT

• Moving away, ↑wavelength, ↓energy

(Vice versa)
COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND

• Discovered
by Arno
Penzias and
Robert
Woodrow
Wilson
(1964)
 COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND

• Faint glow in
the microwave
band from
blackbody
radiation
ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
 NON-SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT

• Ancient Egyptians
• The world arose from an infinite sea at the
first rising of the sun
• Kuba people of Central Africa
• Mbombo (Bumba)—vomited the stars, sun
and moon
 NON-SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT

• India
• Purusha, a primal man whose head, feet
eyes and mind became the sky, earth,
sun, and moon
• Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT

• Steady-state model
• Big Bang Theory
 STEADY-STATE MODEL

• Proposed by Bondi and Gould, and by

Hoyle.
• States that new matter is created
thereby maintaining its density
• Eventually rejected
 BIG BANG THEORY

• Currently accepted theory of the

origin and evolution of the Universe
• Postulates that 13.8 billion years ago,
the Universe expanded from a tiny,
dense and hot mass to its present size
and much cooler state.
 BIG BANG THEORY
• Rests on two ideas:
• General Relativity and;
• Cosmological Principle
• Has withstood the tests for expansion:
redshift, abundance of H, He and Li,
and pervasive cosmic microwave
background
BIG BANG THEORY
• 9.8 billion
years until
the
present,
dark
energy has
dominated
 ENRICHMENT

• What is the fate of the Universe? Will

the Universe continue to expand or will
it eventually contract because of
gravity?