Professor Lynn Cominsky

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Astronomy 350Cosmology

• Professor Lynn Cominsky
• Department of Physics and Astronomy
• Offices Darwin 329A and NASA EPO
• [phone]
• Best way to reach me lynnc_at_charmian.sonoma.edu

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Astronomy 350/Cosmology

• Book No text is required for this course
• Course Organization
• Beyond Einstein from the Big Bang to Black Holes
• Outer Space (Macroworld) from the Earth through
  the Solar System, to the stars, galaxies and
  clusters of galaxies background radiation
• Inner Space (Microworld) Whats the Matter in
  the Universe? Broken Symmetries and Grand
  Unification
• Hyperspace and Strings

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Astronomy 350/Cosmology

• Five Questions for each topic
• What do we know?
• How do we know it?
• What is its origin, evolution and how does it
  affect the Universe?
• What are the next questions?
• What are the plans to find out?

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Astronomy 350/Grades

• 15 - attendance as evidenced by activities or
  answers to questions (1 per week)
• 20 - long, research style paper. Topic due
  4/22/03, paper due 5/20/03
• 15 for in-class small group presentation
• 15 x 2 for book reports on your choice of
  books from class list, due 3/4/03 and 4/4/03
• 20 for short answer final exam, 5/27/03

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Astronomy 350/Books

• General Cosmology Overview
• The Whole Shebang by Timothy Ferris
• The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg
• A Short History of the Universe by Joseph Silk
• The Shadows of Creation by Michael Riordan and
  David Schramm

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Astronomy 350/Books

• Specific Topics
• Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne
• Black Holes and the Universe by Igor Novikov
• Einsteins Unfinished Symphony by Marcia
  Bartusiak (Gravitational Waves)
• Wrinkles in Time by George Smoot (Cosmic
  Microwave Background)
• Unveiling the Edge of Time by John Gribbin (Black
  Holes, White Holes and Wormholes)
• Flash! By Govert Schilling (Gamma-ray Bursts)

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Astronomy 350/Books

• Higher Dimensions
• Hyperspace by Michio Kaku
• Flatland by Edwin Abbott AND Sphereland by Dionys
  Burger
• Flatland by Edwin Abbott AND Flatterland by Ian
  Stewart
• Surfing through Hyperspace by Clifford Pickover
• The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene (String
  Theory)

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Astronomy 350/Books

• Modern Cosmological Theories
• Before the Beginning by Martin Rees
• The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth
• Strange Matters by Tom Siegfried
• A Hole in the Universe by KC Cole
• Accelerating Universe by Mario Livio
• Runaway Universe by Donald Goldsmith
• How the Universe Got Its Spots by Janna Levin
• The Extravagant Universe by Robert P. Kirshner

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Book Report Grading

• Present a succinct, yet thorough overview of the
  book that encompasses the key elements of the
  books content. The goal here is to convince me
  that you have read the entire book.
• Book report must be well written, and free of
  grammatical and spelling errors.
• Book report must not contain any plagiarized
  material use quotes and refer to page numbers!!
  If I detect any plagiarism, you will receive zero
  points for the report.

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Book Report Grading

• Book reports are expected to be approximately 5
  pages. Your grade will be lowered if your report
  is either too short or too long. Use 12 point
  type, double spaced, and standard margins from
  Word or other program.
• Make sure to put your name on the report.
• No fancy covers please.

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Book Report Grading

• Address one of the following topics in greater
  detail
• Summarize the theoretical reasons why the author
  believes in extra dimensions
• Summarize what it would be like to live in a
  world with different dimensionality
• Summarize the authors view of an inflationary
  period in the early Universe
• Summarize the authors view on the possible
  existence of other universes
• Summarize the authors view on symmetry

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Book Report Grading

• Address one of the following topics in greater
  detail (continued)
• Summarize the evidence presented by the author in
  favor of the Big Bang theory
• Summarize the evidence presented by the author in
  favor of the existence of black holes
• Summarize an important observation presented by
  the author that was not made at visible
  wavelengths.
• Summarize the evidence presented by the author in
  favor of dark energy and/or dark matter

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Other information of interest

• Class web page http//glast.sonoma.edu/lynnc/cou
  rses/a350/
• My group web page http//epo.sonoma.edu
• My office hours 1 3 PM Tuesday in D329A
• Office phone [phone]
• For fastest response send me e-mail
• lynnc_at_charmian.sonoma.edu
• My other office NASA EPO building (old Tech
  High School)

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Beyond Einstein from the Big Bang to Black Holes
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Beyond Einstein

• Essential cosmological questions - Einsteins
  theories predict the answers
• How did the Universe begin? (The Universe is
  expanding from a Big Bang)
• Does time have a beginning and an end? (Space and
  Time both stop at the edge of a black hole)
• Does space have edges?(Dark Energy could be
  pulling our Universe apart)

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Beyond Einstein

• We will explore what is known about these
  cosmological questions and see what it takes to
  go Beyond Einstein to find out
• What powered the Big Bang?
• What happens to space, time and energy at the
  edge of a black hole?
• What is the mysterious dark energy pulling the
  Universe apart?

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Course Outline

• Intro and Review
• Outer Space
• Solar System Formation
• Star Formation and Evolution
• Black Holes and Spacetime
• The Expanding Universe
• Supernovae and Gamma-ray Bursts
• Galaxies and Galaxy Evolution
• Dark Matter

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Course Outline

• Outer Space (continued)
• Clusters of Galaxies and Large Scale Structure
• Background Radiation
• Inflation and Dark Energy
• Inner Space
• Whats the Matter in the Universe?
• Broken Symmetries and Grand Unification
• Hyperspace and Strings

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Early View of the Universe
What are your ideas about the Universe? Take the
Cosmic Survey
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Cosmic Survey

• Do this activity in small groups
• You are given pictures of different astronomical
  objects
• Put them in order of size
• Put them in order of distance
• Put them in order of age

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Powers of Ten

• Scientific Notation
• 10n means 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 n times
• 10-n means 1/(10 x 10 x 10 .) n times
• 10n gt 1 ? it is a 1 followed by n zeroes (102
  100)
• 10-n lt 1 ? it is decimal point, (n-1) zeroes,
  then 1 (10-2 0.01)
• There are 1010 1011 stars in our galaxy, and a
  similar number of galaxies in the Universe

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Sizes and Magnitudes

• There are 1010 1011 stars in our galaxy, and a
  similar number of galaxies in the Universe
• Each star weighs 1030 kg and contains more than
  1057 atoms
• The radius of a typical star is 108 m
• Each atom weighs 10-27 kg and has a radius of
  about 10-10 m
• 1 light year is 9.5 x 1015 m

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Powers of Ten Video

• Produced by Charles and Ray Eames
• Describes the journey into Outer Space and then
  into Inner Space
• Each step is a factor of ten in distance

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Let There Be Light!
l wavelength n frequency
c 3 x 108 m/s The speed of light is the cosmic
speed limit- nothing can move faster
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(No Transcript)
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Seeing the Light
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What emits EM radiation?

• Everything does!
• Often called thermal or blackbody radiation
• the hotter the object, the shorter the wavelength
  of the peak
• the hotter the object, the more intense the
  radiation

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Whats a good blackbody?

• You
• Stars
• The Universe!

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Radio

• Cool objects (0 to a few 10s Kelvin)
• Electrons spiraling
• around magnetic fields
• Collisionally deaccelerated or
• accelerated electrons

• Cold molecular clouds
• Planets
• pulsars
• Radio galaxies
• Intergalactic matter

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Microwave

• a bit warmer objects (10s to 100K)
• microwave generator

• warm molecular clouds
• Planets
• water masers
• Galaxies
• The Universe!

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Infrared

• warm objects (100 to about 2000 K)

• Nebulae
• Planets
• Normal stars
• Enshrouded protostars
• Galaxies

Video from SIRTF
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Visible

• hot objects (2000 to about 10000 Kelvin)
• the Sun of course!

• Nebulae
• Planets
• Normal stars, sun-like
• and hotter
• Galaxies

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Ultraviolet

• hotter objects (10,000 to about 100,000 Kelvin)

• Nebulae
• Planets with magnetic fields
• (aurorae)
• O-F stars
• Pulsars
• Galaxies

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X-rays

• very hot objects (100,000 to a few 106 Kelvin)
• electrons in magnetic fields
• electrons scattering off photons

• Planets
• O star winds
• solar corona
• White dwarfs
• Pulsars
• Black holes
• Galaxy clusters
• Dark matter, indirectly

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Gamma Rays

• Extremely energetic objects
• Radioactive decay (Co56, Ti44)
• Fusion
• Cosmic ray/gas interaction
• matter/antimatter annihilation

• supernovae
• Diffuse Galactic emission
• Active galaxies
• (some) Pulsars
• black holes
• Gamma Ray Bursts

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Gamma Rays

• Extremely energetic objects
• Radioactive decay (Co56, Ti44)
• Fusion
• Cosmic ray/gas interaction
• matter/antimatter annihilation

• supernovae
• Diffuse Galactic emission
• Active galaxies
• (some) Pulsars
• black holes
• Gamma Ray Bursts

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GEMS Invisible Light Sources and Detectors

• Different stations have different types of light
  sources and detectors
• All stations have same set of materials
• Try each of the 5 stations
• For each material Predict whether or not it will
  block the light, then test your prediction
• Write your predictions and results down on the
  worksheets that are provided
• Hand in worksheets before leaving class

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Looking back through space and time
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Ultimate Time Machine

• Doing astronomical observations is like
  travelling back in time
• If an galaxy is 1 million light years away, then
  the light that you are seeing left that galaxy 1
  million years ago, and you are seeing what it
  looked like long ago
• Do the Time Machine Activity

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Web Resources

• Astronomy picture of the Day http//antwrp.gsfc.na
  sa.gov/apod/astropix.html
• Electromagnetic Spectrum http//imagine.gsfc.nasa.
  gov
• Beyond Einstein program http//universe.gsfc.nasa.
  gov
• Imagine the Universe http//imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov