ASTROPHYSICS OR SPACE PHYSICS

[NOTES] – 3
THE UNIVERSE
The Universe is made up of billions of galaxies,
and the Milky Way is one of them. The diameter of the
Milky Way galaxy is around 100 000 light-years and it
contains billions of stars.
THE ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE
The origin of the Universe is the origin of every creation.
Many theories are there explaining the origin of Universe.
The most acceptable theory is the BIG BANG theory.

An astronomer, Edwin Hubble, in 1929, after studying light

from distant stars, announced his theory, “the Universe is
continually expanding”.
The BIG BANG THEORY states that the
Universe began as a hot and infinitely dense point. About
13.7 billion years ago, this tiny singularity violently
exploded and expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused
the Universe to cool. And it is from this explosion, that all
matter, energy, space and time were created. From the time
of explosion, the Universe started expanding and it is still
continue to expand with an acceleration
 The Expansion of Universe
The expansion of Universe means, the galaxies
are moving away from the centre of Universe, the point
where the explosion happened or the galaxies are moving
away from each other or space is increasing between the
galaxies. But when we observe from our galaxy, all other
galaxies appear to move away from our galaxy.
The farthest galaxies appear to move faster than the ones
close to us. This means the universe is still expanding. If
things are moving apart, it means that long ago, everything
had been close together.
The expansion implies that, at some point, the
Universe was smaller. That means, from the present
expanded state, if we go back in the reverse order, we will
reach a single point, the point of explosion.

The main evidences or proofs for the Big-Bang theory or for

the continuing expansion of the Universe
1. Galactic red-shift
2. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)
Galactic red-shift:
Wavelength of light coming from the stars and
galaxies appear to be stretched or increased so that it seems
to be shifted to the red end of the spectrum. This is called
Galactic red shift.

For understanding Galactic red-shift, we should know

certain fundamental aspects
a. Doppler Effect: According to Doppler Effect, if the
source moves towards a stationary observer, the
frequency of the wave appears to increase and so the
wavelength appears to decrease.
If the source moves away from a stationary observer,
the frequency of the wave appears to decrease and so
the wavelength appears to increase. If the wavelength
of a wave increases we can say it is red shifted, and if
the wavelength of a wave decreases, we can say it is
blue shifted.

Comparing the absorption light spectrum produced from the Sun

and a distant galaxy after passing through the Earth’s atmosphere
containing cold gases. ]
Calculating Red-shift OR Doppler shift

• Where:
o λ = observed wavelength of the source in metres (m)
o λ0 = reference wavelength in metres (m)
o Δλ = change in wavelength in metres (m)
o v = velocity of a galaxy in metres per seconds (m/s)
o c = the speed of light in metres per second (m/s)

• This means that the change in wavelength, Δλ:

Δλ = λ – λ0

There is no unit for Doppler shift.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SPECTRUM PROVING THE EXPANSION OF

THE UNIVERSE THUS SUPPORTING THE BIG-BANG THEORY

When the light source is receding, the

wavelength seems longer, that is the light is redder. When
we observe the absorption spectra of light coming from
other stars and supernova explosions in other galaxies, if
it appears to be red-shifted, (which means, when the
absorption lines of the spectrum of light from other stars and
galaxies are compared with the absorption lines of the
normal spectrum on the Earth, and if it appears to be shifted
to the red end),we can understand that stars and galaxies
are receding from us. The second conclusion is, because
light from further away stars and galaxies appear to be
more red-shifted, we can understand that the further away
they are, the faster is their speed of recession.
• These observations imply that the universe is
expanding and therefore support the Big Bang Theory.
 2.Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR):
Microwave radiation of a specific frequency and
generally uniform temperature of 2.73K is observed at
all points in space around us and is known as Cosmic
Microwave Background Radiation

Evidence from CMB Radiation

• The discovery of the CMBR (Cosmic Microwave
Background Radiation) led to the Big Bang theory
becoming the currently accepted model
o The CMBR is a type of electromagnetic radiation
which is a remnant from the early stages of the
Universe.
o It has a wavelength of around 1 mm making it a
microwave, hence the name
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

• In 1964, Astronomers discovered radiation in the

microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum is
coming from all directions and at a generally uniform
temperature of 2.73 K

* According to the Big Bang theory, the early Universe

was an extremely hot and dense environment. As a result of
this, it must have emitted thermal radiation.

The radiation is in the microwave region

o This is because over the past 14 billion years or so, the

radiation initially from the Big Bang has become
redshifted as the Universe has expanded
o Initially, this would have been high energy radiation,
towards the gamma end of the spectrum
o As the Universe expanded, the wavelength of the
radiation increased
o Over time, it has increased so much that it is now in
the microwave region of the spectrum
• The temperature of the CMBR is mostly uniform.This
implies that all objects in the Universe are more or
less uniformly spread out.
AGE OF THE UNIVERSE :

Hubble’s Law:

The speed of recession of a galaxy (v) is directly proportional to

its distance from the Earth(d). This is called Hubble’s law.

v = H0 d where H0 is the Hubble’s constant = 2.2x10-18 /s

Hubble’s constant (H0) is the ratio of the speed at which the

galaxy is moving away from the Earth to its distance from the
Earth.
H0 = v
d
Its value is 2.2x10-18 /s which represents the rate at which the
Universe is expanding at the present time.

[ Hubble’s constant was calculated from the speed of recession

of galaxy ( calculated from red shift) and its distance from the
Earth (which is calculated from brightness measurements of a
supernova in the same galaxy. The apparent brightness
decreases as the inverse square of our distance from the
supernova and its original brightness can be calculated from its
mass.)]

Since, velocity = distance, time = distance (d) = 1

time velocity (v) H0

Age of the Universe can be calculated from the equation,

where d is the distance and v is the speed of

recession of distant galaxies.
[ All the galaxies were supposed to be at the same point in the
beginning or at the time equal to the age of the Universe]
Calculate the age of the Universe:

Age = 1 = 1
H0 2.2x 10-18 = 4.5 x 1017 s = 4.5 x 1017 s
3600x 24x 365

= 1.4 x 1010 years

= 14 billion years