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Whats going on in the Universe?

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

University of Oxford Astrophysics
&
Mansfield College
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Contents

Pluto an update
Dark matter
Dark energy
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Pluto
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Old solar system
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Pluto and the Lowell Observatory
Pluto discovered in Feb 1930
announcement held until 13
th
March, the
75
th
anniversary of Percival Lowells birth.
Initially believed to be much more massive
than it actually is.
Not yet named.
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Oxford school-girl names Pluto!
14/3/1930; newspapers carry
news of discovery
Venetia Burneys grandfather
reads out to her The Times
report. Grandfather is the
retired Librarian of oxford
Universitys Bodleian
Library.
Venetia suggests Pluto
Venetia Burney Phair
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Name forwarded
Grandfather impressed
takes suggestion to Herbert
Hall Turner Oxfords
Savillian Professor of
Astronomy
15
th
March HHT telegraphs
name to Lowell
Observatory;
Observatory likes name and
adopts it.

Herbert Hall Turner
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Problem with Pluto 1
Unusual orbit highly inclined to plane where all the other
planets orbit. Also more eccentric (although not by a lot)
Diagrams compare orbits of Pluto and Neptune.

Plutos orbit
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The problem with Pluto 2
Smallest mass planet (one-thirtieth of mass of Mercury);
for many years its mass and diameter were overestimated.
Smaller and less massive mass than some moons
Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, the Moon, Europa and
Triton. (Pluto on bottom right!)
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Problem with Pluto 3
Charon big for a moon
when compared with
Pluto.
Unusual both tidally
locked (each always
shows the same face to
the other)
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Problem with Pluto 4
Pluto has pals! Lots of
Pluto-like things are
being discovered a bit
further out than Pluto.
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More to come!
Half a million Kuiper belt objects with
diameters greater than 30 kilometers.
Beyond Neptune there are estimated to be
more than 100000 icy objects with
diameters over 100km.
With new telescopes (e.g PanStarrs) coming
on line more and more of these will be
discovered.
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Pan-Starrs
4 x 1.8 m telescopes
Located in Hawaii
Primary task to
identify hazardous
asteroids
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Definition of a planet
A planet could be defined in several ways:
it orbits the Sun (but is not a moon, an
artificial satellite, or another star)
it is round(-ish)
it was formed from the proto-solar disk
it is the dominant object/has cleared its orbit
it causes perturbations of other planets
motion
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International Astronomical Union
The world body responsible for definitions
and for naming objects
About 2000 astronomers in membership
Meets every three years for 10 days
summer 2006 in Prague. In 2009 in Rio de
Janiero. (Executive Committee meets more
often.) Resolutions Committee.
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Todays Definitions
A PLANET
Orbits Sun, is not a satellite, nor a star
Round (ish)
Has cleared its orbit
A DWARF PLANET
Orbits Sun, etc
Is round(ish)
SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES
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Issues outstanding
Boundary between brown dwarf (failed star)
and large planet.
Relation to planets around other stars.
Definition of binary planets/dwarf planets
(e.g.Pluto and Charon)
Naming issues
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The Milky Way our galaxy
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Rotating, spiral galaxy
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Andromeda Galaxy
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Our Galaxy the Milky Way
Our Sun is one of 100 thousand million
stars that make up the Milky Way.
It is an average star, located two-thirds of
the way out from the centre.
Galaxy is disk-shaped, 100,000 light years
diameter.
Sun rotates round centre of galaxy at ~ 200
km/s
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Orion and Milky Way
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Milky Way + telescope
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The Milky Way in other languages
Australian Aboriginal The Rainbow
Serpent
Celtic The Silver Street (Arianrod)
China The Celestial River
Cree Indian The Path of the Spirits
Ancient Hebrew River of Fire
Kalahari The Backbone of the Night
The Milky Way in other languages,
contd
Korean Silver River Water
Maori - The Long Fish
Setswana The Place where the Lightening
Rests
Siberia Silicon River
Sweden The Winter Road

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Dark matter and the rotation of galaxies
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Spiral galaxies
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Wheres the edge of the galaxy?
As the edge of the visible galaxy is reached you would
expect this rotation curve to start dropping it should
follow Keplers Third Law.
It doesnt! Besides the visible material there must be dark
material which contributes gravity
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Clusters of galaxies

and dark matter
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Perseus Cluster of Galaxies
Galaxies moving so
fast the cluster should
break up.
We see no sign of
clusters breaking up.
Does extra, dark
material in cluster
provides gravity to
bind cluster?
Lensed image of object behind
cluster
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Dark matter
To prevent galaxies and clusters of galaxies
centrifuging apart we postulate the
existence of dark matter.
This material has gravity, but does not
shine.
There may be several kinds of dark matter.
All of them must be totally different from
the material know about already.

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The history of the universe
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The Beginning of the Universe
The Universe began 13.7 billion years ago with a


BIG BANG


All the universe, all of space, matter, energy, time
started with a huge explosion from a tiny size.

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Evidence for Big Bang
Galaxies moving apart; they appear to have
been all together at one point in past.
Cosmic microwave background radiation
left over from Big Bang; now cooled to
about 3 K. 2006 Nobel prize for physics.
The abundance of deuterium
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The Evolution of the Universe
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Dark energy accelerating the expansion of
the universe
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An accelerating phase?
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An accelerating universe
Something is causing the expansion of the
Universe to accelerate.
We dont know what it is, but we feel better
if we give it a name dark energy.
The acceleration shows in the Universe
today, but was not noticeable in the earlier
universe.
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The Content of the Universe
Of the mass-energy
that makes up our
Universe:
4% is ordinary matter
(the stuff we and our
world are made out of)
23% is dark matter
73% is dark energy
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In conclusion
We have had to invent dark matter to stop
galaxies and clusters of galaxies from flying
apart.
We have had to invent dark energy to
explain why the expansion of the universe is
getting faster not slower.
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The End


Questions welcome!

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Our Galaxy the Milky Way
Our Sun is one of 100 thousand million stars that
make up the Milky Way.
It is an average star, located two-thirds of the way
out from the centre.
Galaxy is disk-shaped, 100,000 light years
diameter.
Sun rotates round centre of galaxy at ~ 200 km/s
Monty Python Galaxy Song
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Carl Sandburg
USA poet, Pullitzer prize winner. 1878
1967
Remember who you are. Remember you are
one of the latest products of millions of
years of toil and play and regurgitation of
universal forces. The rain and stars and dust
of a thousand worlds that have perished
have contributed to the making of you.
Part of A Little Sermon, 1907.
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Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud
Kuiper Belt outer
part of solar system;
source of most of
these objects
Oort Cloud spherical
cloud enveloping solar
system; source of
many comets. Sedna
comes from Oort
Cloud.
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We are exceptional!

Live in an exceptionally dense part of the
Universe
Live in a chemically atypical part of the
Universe
We are made of matter, not antimatter we
owe our existence to a ninth decimal place
anomaly!
We are made of baryons, particles which make
up only 4% of the mass-energy of the universe.

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Orion and Geminids
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Orion and Geminids
Meteors best seen Dec
14
th
, 15
th
, just as gets
dark
They will appear as
streaks radiating out
from point marked
See perhaps 1 per
minute


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Geminids meteor shower
Called geminids because come from
constellation of Gemini, the twins.
Asteroid (3200Phaethon) has trail of dust
following it. When Earths orbit intersects
the trail of dust we see lots of dust particles
entering atmosphere and burning up
shooting star.