SCALE OF THE UNIVERSE

Aman Chokshi 12-PH-214

Introduction
- The universe is an almost unimaginably large space. - It is theorized to be around 13.8 billion years old. - That is 13,800,000,000 years old! - The universe is always changing and is full of untold fascinating mystries waiting to be discovered.

A perspective on size
- The units that are primarily used in astronomy are light years. - A light year is the distance light travels in one year. - One light year is equal to 9.461 X 10^ 12 kilometers . - One megaparsec is equal to 3.26 X 10^6 lightyears.

12,700 km in diameter.

Is 4 light years across, beyond which suns gravity gives way to gravity of other stars.

Is totally 10,000 light years across

Our home galaxy contains between 200- 400 billion stars and is 100,000 light years across.

Is made of 47 galaxies among which the milky way and andromeda galaxy are the largest. Is 3 megaparsecs across

Is around 33 megaparsecs across and contains roughly 100 galactic groups.

Is around 300 megaparsecs across. The superclusters are observed in the form of filaments.

- It is 28,000 megaparsecs across. - Consists of more than 100 billion galaxies, arranged in millions of superclusters, galactic filaments, and voids, creating a foam-like superstructure. - Beyond, lies the mysterious unobservable regions where no light from those regions has reached the Earth yet.

Expansion
- The universe is not static. It is constantly changing and expanding. - It is known that every galaxy is moving away each other. - This can be explained by the fact that not only are the galaxies moving away from each other but the space in which they exist is also in a constant state of expansion.

- This may be confusing but it can be explained by a simple analogy. - Imagine ants on a deflated balloon, as the balloon is slowly filled, the space in which the ants exist in is expanding and so it seems like the ants are moving away from each other! - Similarly as the galaxies move away from each other.

Origin of the universe

- A widely excepted theory explaining the early development of the universe is called the Big Bang Theory. - The Big Bang is theorized to have occurred around 13.8 billion years ago in and area of infinite volume in matter of infinite density. - It resulted in a soup of primordial particles ( quarks, gluons, etc) at high energy. - As a result of the Big Bang explosion the universe was rapidly expanding and rapidly cooling.

- After initial expansion the universe had colled sufficiently to allow the formation of sub atomic particles such as protons, neutrons and electrons. - It took thousands of years for the formation of electrically neutral atoms. Even then only light atoms where formed such as Hydrogen, Helium and some Lithium. - These giant clouds of basic elements slowly coalesced through gravity to form the earliest of stars and galaxies. This led to the formation of the heavier elements.

Observable universe
- The observable universe consists of stars and galaxies that can in theory be observed from earth because light or other radiation has had the time to reach earth since the beginning of the universe. - The distance to the edge of the observable universe is roughly constant in every direction, then the observable universe is a spherical volume with the observer at its centre.

- It must also be noted that every location in the universe has its own observable universe which may or may not overlap with the one centered at earth! - In practice it is not possible to look farther back in time than the recombination epoch. - The recombination epoch is the time when the universe cooled sufficiently for the plasma then present to form neutral atoms. - Before this photons emitted by particles were quickly re-absorbed by other particles. - Before that the universe consisted of plasma which was opaque to photons.

- It is not impossible to study events prior to the recombination epoch. - The universe emits a very constant radiation known as cosmic microwave background noise. - The minute fluctuations in this radiation can give us clues to even older events in the formation of the universe.

WE ARE NOTHING BUT STARDUST