One night, Edwin Hubble noticed something about the stars that he could not explain

What the heck? No way!!

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Chapter 1: Cosmology and the Birth of Earth

How old is the universe?

1. 2. 3. 4. 25 billion years 13.7 billion years 4.5 billion years 500 million years
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Big Bang hypothesis(1)

13.7 Ga ago, matter, energy and space were packed into a single point. The single point was so hot that atoms could not existonly subatomic particles. At the instant of the Big Bang, all of that material began to expand explosively from the single point. As the material expanded, it cooled and decreased in density.

Big Bang hypothesis(2)

Big Bang nucleosynthesis
Soon the universe was cool enough that atoms could stay together. Hydrogen (H) atoms formed. The universe was still very dense, so H collided with each other and formed He by nuclear fusion. Eventually, H atoms interacted chemically to produce hydrogen gas (H2). H2 and He formed clouds throughout the universe.

How do we know the BB happened?

1. 2.
3. 4.

5. 6.

We can still hear it We can still see the universe flying apart We can see back in time to before atoms existed Physicists say the types and amounts of elements in the universe are consistent with BB All of the above. All hooey. BB is purely theoretical.

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One night, Edwin Hubble noticed something about the stars that he could not explain

What the heck? No way!!

The red shift

Stars further from the Earth have their light shifted toward the red end of the spectrum compared to closer stars.
Light wave travels to Earth

This means that all stars are moving away from Earth. Conclusion: the universe is expanding.

If the star moves away, the wavelength increases.

Background radiation
We can measure microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang. This is like looking back in time to when the Universe was still so dense that photons were scattered, just like in a fog.

Map of background radiation measured in micro-Kelvins

H & He exist but arent we still missing something?

Yes- the rest of the elements. These were produced by stellar nucleosynthesis. Clouds of H2 and He gas condensed under gravity to until they were dense enough for nuclear fusion to begin. These were the first stars. As during the Big Bang, the earliest stars fused H atoms into He.

Stellar nucleosynthesis
H
1. Star burns H and makes He

He
2. Star uses up its H and cools down. Without heat, gravity wins and the star begins to collapse and heat up

He

He

3. but only until the star is hot enough and dense enough for nuclear fusion to turn He into C. The star shines again.

Stellar nucleosynthesis
Fe
4. The process repeats, making heavier and heavier atoms until Fe is made. Fe is the heaviest atom that can be made by nuclear fusion during the normal lifetime of a star.

Then

the star explodes as a supernova. It relases the elements formed in its core, and forms heavier elements by bombarding existing atoms with neutrons.

The Solar System

Terrestrial planets

Jovian planets
Low density icy objects
ices (CH4, NH3, H2O) compounds made of lighter elements (H, He, C, N, O)

Fe, Mg, Si, O, S

High density stone and metal objects

Asteroid belt

Jupiter

Saturn Uranus Neptune

Sun

(distances from Sun are not to scale)

Kuiper Belt

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars