Topic 4.3 - Cosmology

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  • Created by: goldstar3
  • Created on: 04-06-18 21:12

F) Discovery of quasars

  • Astronomers in diff regions of EM spectrum
  • 1950s: stong radio sources matched with stars
  • Position of 3C 273 precisely determined
  • By Cyril Hazard and John Bolton
  • Parkes Radio Observatory, Australia
  • Due to lunar occultation
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J) Discovery of CMB

  • By accident
  • Penzias and Wilson
  • Attempting to detect radio
  • Steady uniform 'noise' from all parts of sky, day and night
  • Had eliminated radio interference
  • Stronger than expected
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I) Significance of CMB

  • All directions in space
  • Remnants of the Big Bang
  • First temp was 3000K
  • Wavelength was 1 micrometer
  • Now 1000 times longer at microwaves as universe has expanded 1000x
  • Temp of universe has fallen by factor of 1000 to 3K
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K) COBE & WMAP

  • COBE detected ripples in radiation
  • Variation in density of matter where galaxies formed
  • WMAP studied dark matter and dark energy
  • Determined age of universe within 1%
  • Allows us to learn about structure of early universe
  • Confirmed dark energy
  • Planck Observatory recently 
  • Origin of cosmic structure and early universe
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L) Dark Matter

  • Invisible to astronomers
  • Doesn't emit/reflect radiation
  • Detectable gravitational effects
  • Includes: black holes, neutrinos etc
  • Thought to make up 90% of mass of universe
  • Galaxy had higher velocity than it should have had
  • This is because it had the mass of dark matter, increasing its velocity
  • Gravitationally bends light (gravitational lensing)
  • If Universe exceeds critical density, will lead to 'Big Crunch'
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M) Dark Energy

  • Universe expanding at accelerating rate
  • Previously expected gravity would be causing expansion to slow down
  • Could cause Universe to expand forever
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N) Expanding Universe

  • Redshift of galaxies
  • CMB
  • Relative abundance of elements in Universe fits with predictions
  • Problems: missinh mass
  • rate of expansion should be decelerating
  • why is there more matter than antimatter?
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P) Other Evolutionary Models

  • Steady State agrees Universe is expanding but matter is constantly created
  • Density remains constant
  • No observational evidence
  • Cyclic Universe suffers lack of evidence
  • There are problems with all models
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