Chapter 21

The Expanding
Universe

21st CENTURY ASTRONOMY

Fifth EDITION
Kay | Palen | Blumenthal
 Cosmic Microwave
Background Radiation

2016 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

 Cosmology

Cosmology is the study of the universe,

including:
Structure: how matter is arranged.
History: how stars, galaxies, and
structure change.
Origins: conditions at early times.
Fate: the ultimate future of the universe.

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 Cosmological Principle

Cosmological principle: The universe is

assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic.
Homogeneous: the same in all places.
Isotropic: the same in all directions.
True on large scales.
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 The Universe Is Expanding

The universe (the space between the

galaxies, specifically) is expanding.
This follows from two observations:
Galaxies are moving away from us.
Their speeds are proportional to their
distances; galaxies farther away are moving
away more quickly.
Well discuss each consideration at length.

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 Galaxies are Receding
We measure speeds with the Doppler shift.
All galaxies except the nearest have a redshift:
observed wavelength > rest wavelength.
Redshifted spectral lines = movement away.
We define a number z for the redshift:

The recession velocity is given by

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 Speeds and Distance
Galaxies farther away are moving more
quickly (have greater redshifts).
If we measure distances and velocities, we
find Hubbles law:

H0 is a number called the Hubble

constant, and measures how quickly the
universe is expanding.
dG is the distance to the galaxy.

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 We Are NOT in the Middle!, Part 1

It might appear that we are in the center of the

universe, with all galaxies moving away.
This is incorrect! There is no center.
Simple model: paper clips on a rubber band.

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 We Are NOT in the Middle!, Part 2

All observers see the same view.

All see other galaxies moving away, with the
ones farther away moving more quickly.
The universe is expanding uniformly.
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 More Ideas, Part 1

It is space that is doing the expanding.

Distant galaxies have a large look-back time.
Light has a large but finite speed; it takes 27,000
years for the light from an object 27,000 light-
years away to reach us.
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 More Ideas, Part 2

Galaxies will be farther apart in the future.

Galaxies were closer together in the past.
If the expansion has been going on for a long
time, galaxies were once very close together.
Hubble time: time when separation was zero.
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 The Big Bang

The Hubble time was 13.7 billion years ago.

At that time, the Big Bang occurred from an
extremely dense point and began expanding.
Galaxies are not flying away from each other.
Space itself is stretching or expanding.
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 Redshift and the Scale Factor
The redshift tells us how much the
universe has expanded since a galaxys
light was emitted.
The scale factor RU is a measure of how
much the universe has expanded.

Example: z = 1 means RU = 0.5. The

universe was half its current size when light
was emitted from this galaxy.
2016 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Redshift and the Expansion

Redshifts of galaxies
are not due to Doppler
shifts.
Instead, the light is
stretched out as it
travels through the
expanding universe:
cosmological
redshift.
More travel = greater
redshift.

2016 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

 Predictions and Confirmations, Part 1

If all matter was in a small volume, it means

conditions were very hot.
Due to expansion, temperatures dropped.
The hot, dense gas should have a blackbody
spectrum.
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 Predictions and Confirmations, Part 2

As the universe expands, the light will redshift

and cool.
Prediction: a Planck spectrum uniformly
redshifted by the expansion of the universe to a
temperature of about 510 K.
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The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Part 1

This light was found in 1965 by Arno Penzias and

Robert Wilson.
Cosmic microwave background radiation.
Form: a Planck spectrum with T = 2.73 K.
Peak at microwave wavelengths.
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The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Part 2
When the universe was
hot and the gas was
ionized, photons were
trapped with matter.
At an age of several
hundred thousand
years, the temperature
cooled enough that
protons and electrons
could form neutral H
atoms: recombination.

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The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Part 3

At that time, light

was no longer
blocked from its
travel by all
of the matter.
The light could
travel freely, and
cooled by a factor of
about 1,000 to
about 2.7 K, as
confirmed by
satellite data.

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Another Prediction: Nucleosynthesis, Part 1
Before
recombination,
everything would
have been much
hotter and more
dense.
At high densities,
nuclear reactions
occur
Big Bang
nucleosynthesis.

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Another Prediction: Nucleosynthesis, Part 2
Fusion in the early
universe produced
mainly hydrogen
and helium.
Prediction: 24
percent of matter
should be helium.
In fact, this is
observed!

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PROCESS OF SCIENCE
Preconceived
notions cannot be
built in to theories.
The data and the
mathematics show
the true story.
You must be able
to listen to what
the data tell you.

2016 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

 Check Your Understanding 21.1

In astronomy, isotropy means that the universe is the

same _____, and homogeneity means that the
universe is the same _____.

a) in all locations;
b) in all directions;
c) at all times;
d) at all size scales.

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 Check Your Understanding 21.2

Where in the universe did the Big Bang take place?

a) near the Milky Way Galaxy;

b) near the center of the universe;
c) near some unknown location on the other side of the
universe;
d) everywhere in the universe.

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 Check Your Understanding 21.3

The scale factor keeps track of:

a) the movement of galaxies through space;

b) the current distances between many galaxies;
c) the changing distance between any two galaxies;
d) the location of the center of the universe.

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 Check Your Understanding 21.4

What is the interpretation of a redshift larger than 1?

a) The object is moving faster than the speed of light;

b) The universe has more than doubled in size since the
light from that object was emitted;
c) The light was shifted to longer wavelengths from
gravitational radiation;
d) The rate of expansion of the universe is increasing.

2016 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

 Check Your Understanding 21.5

The existence of the cosmic microwave background

radiation tells us that the early universe was:

a) much hotter than it is today;

b) much colder than it is today;
c) about the same temperature as today but was much
more dense.

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 Working It Out 21.1Expansion & Age of the Universe

You can calculate the time it took for two

galaxies to be separated by a certain distance
due to the expansion of the universe, beginning
with zero separation.

If H0 is 70 km/s/Mpc, time = 1.4 x 1010 years.

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 Working It Out 21.2When Redshift Exceed One
When the redshift exceeds 1, that means that
mathematically the recession velocity is greater
than the speed of light.
The closer z gets to 1, the more relativistic
effects need to be considered.
Need to interpret the meaning in terms of the
scale factor instead of the speed:

A cosmological redshift of z = 2 means that the

universe was 1/3 the size it is now.
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 This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 21

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Century Astronomy at
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21st CENTURY
ASTRONOMY
Fifth EDITION
Kay | Palen | Blumenthal