size of the universe presentation

The Nine Planets

How Big is the Universe?

Think about this for a second; it takes us around three days to reach the Moon , approximately seven months to get the closest planet to us, namely Mars , 15 months to reach Venus , six years to reach Jupiter , seven to reach Saturn , 8.5 years to reach Uranus , 9.5 years to reach Pluto – the closest dwarf planet , and twelve years to get to Neptune , the farthest planet.

The Sun is 0.00001581 light-years away, and in the best-case scenario, we could reach it in 25 days. So how big is the Universe ? Its around 93 billion light-years. How much is that? Well, let’s think about the Sun again.

The Sun is one astronomical unit (AU) away from us. One astronomical unit is 149,598,000 km / 92,955,887 miles, and in our top shape, we could reach it in 25 days. Now, the Universe is 93 billion light-years across, and one, just one light-year, is equivalent to 63,000 astronomical units.

As such, one light-year is the equivalent to 9 trillion kilometers / 6 trillion miles, and our Universe is 93 billion light-years in diameter. That’s how big our Universe is, and that’s not even the end of it. The 93 billion years is just the observable Universe, the Universe, which we can currently see. The whole Universe might very well be 250 times larger than the observable Universe, or at least 7 trillion light-years in diameter.

Why is the Universe so Big?

The Universe is so big because it is constantly expanding, and it does so at a speed that even exceeds the speed of light. Space itself is actually growing, and this is going on for around 14 billion years or so.

In this amount of time, with speed greater than the speed of light, the Universe gradually grew, and it still expands even to this day. There isn’t actually an answer to why the Universe is this big.

Think about how big you are compared to an ant or an atom. There is a huge difference even there. It all has to do with our perception, and even in our current modern age, our perception of the Universe is vastly limited.

Think of it this way, we might see the Universe as being big now, but in the far future, who knows how future generations would view it. Our ancestors didn’t have cars or planes, and they would traverse the world in many months, even years. For them, traveling from point a to b seemed incredibly difficult, and they themselves might have thought, why is the Earth so big?

Nowadays, the world doesn’t seem so big anymore. You can reach point b from point a in a couple of minutes, hours, or in the worst case, days. Our perception is the only thing at play here.

In the future, who knows, maybe we could actually invent something that could travel at the speed of light. Perhaps we might even invent teleportation, or we could use wormholes.

If such technologies are there for us to grab, then will the Universe truly seem so big then? Perhaps it will, but if the vast distances which we should traverse are more easily done, and if the man of the future will find a way to prolong his life further, then the Universe will certainly begin to feel much smaller. Again, perception is everything at play here. We are asking the wrong questions; nature is what it is.

Is the Universe Really Infinite?

Many believe that our Universe is just 13.8 billion years old. However, this is uncertain until proven with extreme accuracy. Sometimes, we can’t even pinpoint the certain age of an object here on Earth, let alone our Universe.

The Universe may be infinite, or it might not be, but again, our perception is at play here. If we will analyze how many stars , planets, and the distances involved for reaching them, and the fact that our Universe is expanding, then it certainly seems infinite.

Even if our Universe weren’t infinite, we would view it as such due to its vastness, and the time it would take to explore everything in it. Our perception creates endless problems in the end.

Now, as you observe, our world is created from dualistic elements—day and night, hot or cold, love or hate, etc. Everything in our little world seems finite, so why shouldn’t there be an infinite element, such as our Universe? Many are afraid to admit that something is infinite, but no matter how you look at it, even if you would reach the end of the Universe, it would still seem infinite regardless.

How Big is the Universe Compared to the Observable Universe?

The observable Universe is 93 billion light-years in diameter. Some scientists believe its true size is even scarier than that. By using the Bayesian model averaging, scientists estimated that the Universe is at least 250 times larger than the observable Universe, or at least 7 trillion light-years in diameter.

The Bayesian model focuses on how likely a model is to be correct, given the data, rather than asking how well the model itself fits the data. Now, this might not be the best method of estimating the true size of our Universe. Still, chances are very high that our Universe is nonetheless, bigger than the observable Universe.

Does the Universe End?

Many cosmologists agree that the Universe is flat and might expand forever. Others theorize that the Universe will end one day. Perhaps the most logical answer is that when all the stars reach the end of their life spans, the Universe will end as the light will end, everything will be covered in darkness.

Maybe the Universe won’t end there if other means of survival are available. Some believe that the Universe will begin to cool as it expands, and life will cease to exist because of this. This theory is named the Big Freeze.

Another popular scenario suggests that our Universe will stop expanding, and will actually reverse this process. When this happens, the Universe will re-collapse, and it will possibly lead to a reformation that will start with another Big Bang. This scenario is called the Big Crunch.

A third popular theory is named the Big Rip. This theory states that everything will be torn to shreds, including atoms. It will happen when the theoretical energy known as dark energy, becomes stronger than gravity. No matter the case, what is certain is that these apocalyptic scenarios won’t happen for billions of years to come.

Where Does Space End?

Space doesn’t end because it is constantly expanding, faster than the speed of light itself. From our point of view, space end at approximately 93 billion light-years away from us, but that isn’t the end of the Universe. It is only how far we can see.

Will the Universe Last Forever?

It is unknown if the Universe will last forever, but most likely, we won’t even be there to see it. We currently do not know if the Univers will stop expanding, and if it does, what would this imply.

Many have proposed several apocalyptic scenarios, like the ones aforementioned above, but isn’t that just typical of us? The Universe might just well last forever, but one thing is true. We are very far from answering such questions.

Everything in the Universe is in motion, and it appears that many celestial objects, such as galaxies , are moving away from us. Perhaps, this is the true end of the Universe, when things will be so far apart that nothing could be reached anymore, and nothing could be concluded as being the Universe anymore since everything will be so far apart, we wouldn’t even know its there.

Did you Know?

Around 550 people have been into Space, and only three of them have died in accidents.
The smallest thing in the Universe that we currently know of is the atom.
The biggest thing we have discovered so far in our Universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. It is a supercluster which has a diameter of around 10 billion light-years.
Many believe that our Universe is only one of a set of separate universes, collectively known as the multiverse.
The word cosmos, rather than Universe, implies viewing the Universe as a complex and orderly system or deity – the opposite of chaos.
The observable Universe is 93 billion light-years, yet, our galaxy, the Milky Way , is just 100,000 light-years in diameter. It would take us endless generations just to explore our galaxy, let alone the Universe.
Another ancient structure is the galaxy supercluster known as the Hyperion Supercluster. This celestial object has more than four quadrillion solar masses, and many estimate that it formed just 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
Universe means “whole,” and it comes from the Latin word “universus.”
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How big is the universe?

How big is the universe around us? What we can observe gives us an answer, but it's likely much bigger than that.

The observable universe

Measuring the universe, the shape of the universe, additional resources and reading, bibliography.

How big is the universe ? It's one of the fundamental questions of astronomy . By looking for the farthest observable point from Earth (and by extension, the oldest given the speed of light ) we can estimate a diameter.

Thanks to evolving technology, astronomers are able to look back in time to the moments just after the Big Bang . This might seem to imply that the entire universe lies within our view. But the size of the universe depends on a number of things, including its shape and expansion.

As a result, while we can make estimates as to the size of the universe scientists can't put a number on it.

Related: What is the coldest place in the universe?

In 2013, the European Space Agency's Planck space mission released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the universe's oldest light. The map revealed that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Planck calculated the age by studying the cosmic microwave background .

"The cosmic microwave background light is a traveler from far away and long ago," said Charles Lawrence, the U.S. project scientist for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in a statement . "When it arrives, it tells us about the whole history of our universe."

Because of the connection between distance and the speed of light, this means scientists can look at a region of space that lies 13.8 billion light-years away. Like a ship in the empty ocean, astronomers on Earth can turn their telescopes to peer 13.8 billion light-years in every direction, which puts Earth inside of an observable sphere with a radius of 13.8 billion light-years. The word "observable" is key; the sphere limits what scientists can see but not what is there.

But though the sphere appears almost 28 billion light-years in diameter, it is far larger. Scientists know that the universe is expanding. Thus, while scientists might see a spot that lay 13.8 billion light-years from Earth at the time of the Big Bang, the universe has continued to expand over its lifetime. If inflation occurred at a constant rate through the life of the universe, that same spot is 46 billion light-years away today according to Ethan Siegel, writing for Forbes , making the diameter of the observable universe a sphere around 92 billion light-years.

These estimations are further complicated by the possibility that the universe is not expanding in an even manner. ESA reported on a 2020 study using data from ESA’s XMM-Newton, NASA’s Chandra Space Telescope and Rosat X-ray observatories suggests that the universe is not expanding at the same rate in all directions. The study measured the X-ray temperatures of hundreds of galaxy clusters and compared that against their brightness. Some clusters appeared less bright than expected, suggesting they were not moving at the same rate. "This possibly uneven effect on cosmic expansion might be caused by the mysterious dark energy ," ESA stated.

Centering a sphere on Earth's location in space might seem to put humans in the center of the universe. However, like that same ship in the ocean, we cannot tell where we lie in the enormous span of the universe. Just because we cannot see land does not mean we are in the center of the ocean; just because we cannot see the edge of the universe does not mean we lie in the center of the universe.

$Called the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photo was assembled by combining 10 years of NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken of a patch of sky at the center of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The XDF is a small fraction of the angular diameter of the full Moon. Image released September 25, 2012.$

Scientists measure the size of the universe in a myriad of different ways. They can measure the waves from the early universe, known as baryonic acoustic oscillations, that fill the cosmic microwave background. They can also use standard candles, such as type 1A supernovae, to measure distances. However, these different methods of measuring distances can provide answers.

How inflation is changing is also a mystery. While the estimate of 92 billion light-years comes from the idea of a constant rate of inflation, many scientists think that the rate is slowing down. If the universe expanded at the speed of light during inflation, it should be 10^23, or 100 sextillion. One explanation for this, outlined by NASA in 2019, is that dark energy events may have impacted the expansion of the universe in the moments after the Big Bang.

Instead of taking one measurement method, a team of scientists led by Mihran Vardanyan at the University of Oxford did a statistical analysis of all of the results. By using Bayesian model averaging, which focuses on how likely a model is to be correct given the data, rather than asking how well the model itself fits the data. They found that the universe is at least 250 times larger than the observable universe, or at least 7 trillion light-years across.

"That's big, but actually more tightly constrained that many other models," according to 2011 MIT Technology Review report.

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Scale of the Universe

Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world.

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Age & Size of the Universe Through the Years

Our estimate of the age and size of the Universe has changed during the past century. Cosmic Times reflects this through the "Age of the Universe" and "Size of the Universe" boxes in the upper left and upper right of each edition. The Size refers to the diameter of the known universe.

Here we describe these estimates.

1919 Age: Infinite Size: 300,000 Light Years

In the early 20th century, astronomers thought that the Universe was infinitely old and unchanging. Meanwhile geologists were determining the age of the earth to be about 1.6 billion years old using early applications of radioactive decay.

At the time, some astronomers thought that the Milky Way comprised everything in the Universe. As described in the article Mt. Wilson Astronomer Estimates Milky Way Ten Times Bigger than Thought , Harlow Shapley studied the distances to globular clusters to determine the size of the Milky Way Galaxy to be 300,000 light years across.

1929 Age: 2 Billion Years Size: 280 Million Light Years

In 1924, Edwin Hubble determined the distance to the Andromeda Nebula to be 900,000 light years. By 1929, he had measured the distances to 24 additional spiral nebulae in his study to determine distances to the galaxies for which Slipher had previously determined redshifts. The farthest was 140 million light years away, making the universe 280 million light years across.

One result from Hubble's discovery of the relationship between the recessional velocity and distance to distant galaxies is that the constant which defines that relationship is also related to the age of the universe. If the universe has been expanding, and Hubble's constant gives the expansion rate, then its inverse gives the amount of time that the expansion has been going on. Hubble's initial value of this constant gives an age of the universe of 2 billion years. Interestingly, at this same time geologists had determined the age of the Earth to be 3 billion years.

1955 Age: 6 Billion Years Size: 4 Billion Light Years

As a result of the recalibration of the Cepheid distance scale and of the new results from the 200-inch telescope at Mt. Palomar, the size of the Universe increased to 4 billion light years by the mid-1950's.

In 1952, Walter Baade redetermined the value of Hubble's constant to be much lower than what Hubble had estimated. As a result, the Universe was found to be about 6 billion years old.

1965 Age: 10-25 Billion Years Size: 25 Billion Light Years

The farthest objects in 1965 were the quasars. The most distant known quasar, named 3C9, was found to be about 12 billion light years away. This gives a size for the universe of about 25 billion light years.

In 1958, Alan Sandage again lowered the value of Hubble's constant, but ended up with a range of ages for the Universe between 15 and 25 billion years. As of 1965, this uncertainty remained, since subsequent studies by a variety of astronomers found different values within this range.

1993 Age: 12-20 Billion Years Size: 30 Billion Light Years

Quasars continue to define the size of the universe into the early 1990's. Quasars had been found with recessional velocities nearly 90% the speed of light, giving distances of 15 billion light years. This gives a size of the universe of 30 billion light years across.

The value of Hubble's constant remained uncertain, giving a range in age for the universe of 12-20 billion years.

2006 Age: 13.7 Billion Years Size: 94 Billion Light Years

The most distant objects in the Universe are 47 billion light years away, making the size of the observable Universe 94 billion light years across. How can the observable universe be larger than the time it takes light to travel over the age of the Universe? This is because the universe has been expanding during this time. This causes very distant objects to be further away from us than their light travel time. For additional information, see Ned Wright's Cosmology FAQ .

The Hubble Key Project, conducted by the Hubble Space Telescope from 1991 to 2000, nailed down the value of the Hubble Constant and hence the age of the Universe. Results from the WMAP satellite further confirmed and refined the age of the Universe to be 13.7 billion years.

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Size of the Universe over time

This graph plots the size of the universe as measured by Hubble telescope observations of exploding stars, called supernovas, at various distances from Earth.

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Origins of the universe, explained

The most popular theory of our universe's origin centers on a cosmic cataclysm unmatched in all of history—the big bang.

The best-supported theory of our universe's origin centers on an event known as the big bang. This theory was born of the observation that other galaxies are moving away from our own at great speed in all directions, as if they had all been propelled by an ancient explosive force.

A Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître first suggested the big bang theory in the 1920s, when he theorized that the universe began from a single primordial atom. The idea received major boosts from Edwin Hubble's observations that galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, as well as from the 1960s discovery of cosmic microwave radiation—interpreted as echoes of the big bang—by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson.

Further work has helped clarify the big bang's tempo. Here’s the theory: In the first 10^-43 seconds of its existence, the universe was very compact, less than a million billion billionth the size of a single atom. It's thought that at such an incomprehensibly dense, energetic state, the four fundamental forces—gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces—were forged into a single force, but our current theories haven't yet figured out how a single, unified force would work. To pull this off, we'd need to know how gravity works on the subatomic scale, but we currently don't.

It's also thought that the extremely close quarters allowed the universe's very first particles to mix, mingle, and settle into roughly the same temperature. Then, in an unimaginably small fraction of a second, all that matter and energy expanded outward more or less evenly, with tiny variations provided by fluctuations on the quantum scale. That model of breakneck expansion, called inflation, may explain why the universe has such an even temperature and distribution of matter.

After inflation, the universe continued to expand but at a much slower rate. It's still unclear what exactly powered inflation.

Aftermath of cosmic inflation

As time passed and matter cooled, more diverse kinds of particles began to form, and they eventually condensed into the stars and galaxies of our present universe.

By the time the universe was a billionth of a second old, the universe had cooled down enough for the four fundamental forces to separate from one another. The universe's fundamental particles also formed. It was still so hot, though, that these particles hadn't yet assembled into many of the subatomic particles we have today, such as the proton. As the universe kept expanding, this piping-hot primordial soup—called the quark-gluon plasma—continued to cool. Some particle colliders, such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider , are powerful enough to re-create the quark-gluon plasma.

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Radiation in the early universe was so intense that colliding photons could form pairs of particles made of matter and antimatter, which is like regular matter in every way except with the opposite electrical charge. It's thought that the early universe contained equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But as the universe cooled, photons no longer packed enough punch to make matter-antimatter pairs. So like an extreme game of musical chairs, many particles of matter and antimatter paired off and annihilated one another.

Somehow, some excess matter survived—and it's now the stuff that people, planets, and galaxies are made of. Our existence is a clear sign that the laws of nature treat matter and antimatter slightly differently. Researchers have experimentally observed this rule imbalance, called CP violation , in action. Physicists are still trying to figure out exactly how matter won out in the early universe.

the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63.

Building atoms

Within the universe's first second, it was cool enough for the remaining matter to coalesce into protons and neutrons, the familiar particles that make up atoms' nuclei. And after the first three minutes, the protons and neutrons had assembled into hydrogen and helium nuclei. By mass, hydrogen was 75 percent of the early universe's matter, and helium was 25 percent. The abundance of helium is a key prediction of big bang theory, and it's been confirmed by scientific observations.

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This supermassive black hole was formed when the universe was a toddler

Despite having atomic nuclei, the young universe was still too hot for electrons to settle in around them to form stable atoms. The universe's matter remained an electrically charged fog that was so dense, light had a hard time bouncing its way through. It would take another 380,000 years or so for the universe to cool down enough for neutral atoms to form—a pivotal moment called recombination. The cooler universe made it transparent for the first time, which let the photons rattling around within it finally zip through unimpeded.

We still see this primordial afterglow today as cosmic microwave background radiation , which is found throughout the universe. The radiation is similar to that used to transmit TV signals via antennae. But it is the oldest radiation known and may hold many secrets about the universe's earliest moments.

From the first stars to today

There wasn't a single star in the universe until about 180 million years after the big bang. It took that long for gravity to gather clouds of hydrogen and forge them into stars. Many physicists think that vast clouds of dark matter , a still-unknown material that outweighs visible matter by more than five to one, provided a gravitational scaffold for the first galaxies and stars.

Once the universe's first stars ignited , the light they unleashed packed enough punch to once again strip electrons from neutral atoms, a key chapter of the universe called reionization. In February 2018, an Australian team announced that they may have detected signs of this “cosmic dawn.” By 400 million years after the big bang , the first galaxies were born. In the billions of years since, stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies have formed and re-formed—eventually yielding our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and our cosmic home, the solar system.

Even now the universe is expanding , and to astronomers' surprise, the pace of expansion is accelerating. It's thought that this acceleration is driven by a force that repels gravity called dark energy . We still don't know what dark energy is, but it’s thought that it makes up 68 percent of the universe's total matter and energy. Dark matter makes up another 27 percent. In essence, all the matter you've ever seen—from your first love to the stars overhead—makes up less than five percent of the universe.

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Indefatigable wonder: how Brian Cox’s latest show conveys the immense scale of the cosmos

Laura Hiscott reviews the new television show Universe , presented by Brian Cox, which was broadcast in October and November last year and is now available on BBC iPlayer

Brian Cox ’s latest blockbuster television series, Universe , has an ambitious title. In German – a wonderfully to-the-point language – the word for universe is “All”. So perhaps his show could have been called Everything . Indeed, Cox has an awful lot to get through in the five hour-long episodes. We start with Sun and stars before moving on to the search for life on other planets. The Milky Way and other galaxies are next, followed by black holes and the Big Bang.

In turning those vast, mind-bending topics into something watchable, each instalment primarily consists of dazzling CGI depicting astronomical events, interspersed with clips of Cox wandering through scenic landscapes as he explains the relevant astrophysical phenomena. While it isn’t always immediately clear why Cox has ventured to each location – apart from it offering a dramatic backdrop in keeping with the programme’s tone – each spot usually ends up serving as some sort of analogy for the physics.

In the episode about black holes, for example, Cox walks alongside a river, describing how, in the vicinity of a black hole, the “river” of space is “flowing” towards it. If you’re far enough away, the flow of space is slow, so you can swim in the opposite direction and escape. But as you get closer to the black hole, space flows faster and faster – like the river of water as it approaches a waterfall.

Each episode concludes with a short segment about a space mission that has been investigating that episode’s subject. The one about the Sun, for instance, dedicates a few minutes at the end to NASA ’s Parker Solar Probe , the closest-ever spacecraft to our closest star. Much as I admire the CGI visuals and the beautiful landscapes that make up most of the show, after 40 minutes of being immersed in them, these few minutes of space mission footage and interviews with other scientists are a breath of fresh air and a return to reality.

They capture the excitement of being part of a huge project with profound potential, and they inspire appreciation for the technological feats that humans have achieved to explore the universe. One scientist who works on the European Space Agency ’s Gaia mission to map the Milky Way explains how the observatory takes images from opposite sides of the Sun during its orbit. The difference between them, or “parallax”, is then used to calculate an object’s distance from us (similar to how our own eyes create depth perception).

I would have loved more details like this about how we know what we know – both in terms of the techniques used and the observations that have taught us about the cosmos. The series is, sadly, light on such information, which will disappoint physicists, despite Cox touching briefly on how astronomers use redshift and type 1a supernovae acting as reference points to measure distances. In fact, I’m not sure the show will teach much new physics to someone with a background in the subject, or indeed anyone who has watched similar TV programmes before.

A few new ideas intrigued me, though. In the episode about black holes, for example, Cox suggests that having a black hole at the centre of our galaxy might have been necessary for complex life to evolve on Earth. It’s thought that the occasional outpourings of energy from the material surrounding the black hole could have reduced star formation in the outer galaxy, where our solar system lives. This would give the region greater stability – an essential ingredient for life to develop over billions of years.

The theme of life and its importance is a common thread throughout the series. In fact, I felt he labours the point, repeatedly reassuring us that, despite seeming like insignificant specks, we – as conscious matter that can think and wonder – are what gives the cosmos meaning.

Cox repeatedly reassures us that, despite seeming like insignificant specks, we are what gives the cosmos meaning

The tone is also too intense for me at times. Seemingly endless CGI scenes of exploding stars and colliding galaxies are accompanied by dramatic music as if from an epic fantasy movie. The extravagant storytelling begins right from the introduction to the first instalment – “The Sun: God Star” – where Cox explains how we are drawing “ever closer to being able to tell what is surely the greatest story ever told”.

Two scientists’ debate over whether the universe had a beginning – and how the elements were created

The theatrics peak in the fourth episode with the anthropomorphizing of black holes. As Cox details the growth of the Milky Way’s central black hole, Sagittarius A* , he describes it as developing “a taste for more massive prey” and says it “cannibalized its cousin” when it collided with a similar object. But later, after hearing that its presence might have been necessary for our own existence, we are presented with CGI depicting Sagittarius A* while the accompanying song’s lyrics plead: “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good; Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”

The cynic in me felt that moments like this bordered on overkill. And yet, after watching the final episode I did find myself looking again at astronomical images with a renewed sense of wonder. As one scientist says in a segment at the end of the last episode, “It’s really hard to remember what it was like before we had the Hubble Space Telescope . We’ve gotten so used to these extraordinary photographs.”

As humans living our daily lives, we are bombarded with so much new information that even the most incredible facts cease to amaze us after quite a short time. But I think it’s worth it to occasionally revisit them as if you had never learned them before.

Sure, Universe sometimes feels a bit over the top. But as Cox reminds us, there are over two trillion galaxies in the universe, each with hundreds of billions of stars. How do you even begin to convey that without coming across as a bit over the top? If you just want to be wowed by all the ridiculous magnificence of it then that’s a perfectly legitimate pastime – and this programme is for you.

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Scientists create 3D map of universe

5 April 2024

A 360-degree flight through millions of galaxies mapped using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Video: Fiske Planetarium, University of Colorado Boulder and DESI collaboration

A n international team of researchers has created the world's largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe – measuring the expansion of the cosmos over the past 11 billion years.

Dr Cullan Howlett from The University of Queensland helped develop pivotal software used for analysing data collected as part of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, which last year released its first insights into dark energy, the mysterious force behind the universe’s expansion.

Key points:

Galaxies and massive celestial objects have been mapped with unprecedented detail, creating the largest map of the universe ever constructed.
UQ researchers developed the key software used for analysing and modelling remnant sound waves from the early universe.
The information allowed researchers to study how the universe has evolved over time and measure the effect of dark energy.

A three-dimensional map of the universe, and a zoomed-in segment showing interconnected webs of stars and other space matter

Scientists have created the largest 3D map of our universe to date. Earth is at the centre of this thin slice of the full map and the magnified section shows the underlying structure of matter in our universe. Each dot is a different galaxy similar in size to our own Milky Way, Image: Claire Lamman/DESI collaboration; custom colormap package by cmastro

Using the new data, the DESI collaboration has made the most precise measurements to date of how fast the universe has expanded throughout history.

“The team at UQ was responsible for developing one of the key pieces of software used for analysing the survey data, which helps search for a very specific feature in the map,” Dr Howlett said.

“The software models the size and shape of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature, a remnant of sound waves from the early universe.

“The BAO’s size acts as a standard ruler, and by comparing its size at different distances from earth to how big it should have been in the early universe, we can measure the expansion rate of the universe.

This animation shows how baryon acoustic oscillations act as a cosmic ruler for measuring the expansion of the universe. Credit: Claire Lamman/DESI collaboration and Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab

“This information allows us to peer 11 billion years into the past and study how the universe has evolved over time and measure the effects of matter and dark energy.”

The 3D map is comprised of the spatial coordinates and distances of millions of galaxies.

Researchers can measure the longitudinal and latitudinal position of each galaxy, as well as its unique light ‘fingerprint’ – observed by measuring the presence of chemical elements like hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

“We decoded that fingerprint, identified the individual elements, and compared the measured frequencies to those in a lab on Earth to get the distance from us,” Dr Howlett said.

“Once we had millions of sky positions and distances, we put each galaxy at its location relative to earth and built a literal 3D map to analyse.”

An artist's rendering of a galaxy with a large telescope and observatory beneath it

This artist’s rendering shows light from quasars (a type of very bright and distant galaxy) passing through intergalactic clouds of hydrogen gas. Researchers can analyse the light to learn about distant cosmic structure. Image: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld and DESI collaboration

Collaborator, Dr Ryan Turner from Swinburne University of Technology played a critical role developing statistical tools for measuring the motions of galaxies in the local universe.

Dr Turner developed software that can capture the information hidden in galaxy motions, to learn about the laws of gravity and calculate the rate at which the Universe’s largest structures form.

“This is like going from a hand-drawn map of the universe to a satellite image,” Dr Turner said.

“With our much more detailed map, we can picture a larger area and now have significantly more detail in those farther away places and a much more detailed understanding of the structure in our patch of the universe.

“DESI’s new data greatly surpasses all previous surveys of its kind, and with better maps comes better understanding of some of the universe’s most enduring questions.”

Dr Turner said there were also plenty of cosmic surprises to come.

“As the 3D map evolves with more data, we anticipate our understanding of cosmic structures, dark energy, and the fundamental laws governing our universe will continue to refine,” he said.

“But for now, we’ll continue to explore this map in search of more universal dark secrets.”

The DESI data is now available online.

Image captions

An artist's rendor of many stars in a galaxy

Image: Unsplash

Media: Dr Cullan Howlett, [email protected] , +61 420 776 717 ; Faculty of Science Media, [email protected] , +61 438 162 687; Dr Ryan Turner, [email protected] , +61 413 112 218.

DESI is supported by the DOE Office of Science and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility. Additional support for DESI is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA); the National Council of Humanities, Sciences, and Technologies of Mexico; the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain; and by the DESI member institutions.

The DESI collaboration is honoured to be permitted to conduct scientific research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O’odham Nation.

'Hugely exciting': Scientists make ‘largest and most precise’ 3D map of expanding universe

Thursday 4 April 2024 at 6:42pm

Scientists have made the largest 3D map of the universe, measuring how fast it has expanded over 11 billion years by using one of the most precise measurements to date.

An international team, including researchers from the UK, used an instrument known as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (Desi) to create the map.

Their aim was to measure the effects of dark energy, a mysterious force that is believed to be making the universe expand faster and faster.

The map, comprising more than six million galaxies, is the largest 3D map of the cosmos ever constructed, said researchers, who measured its spread with a precision of better than 1%.

Dr Eva-Maria Mueller, Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the University of Sussex, who led part of the cosmological interpretation of the Desi data, said she could not initially believe the “fascinating” results.

She said: “It was a moment I’d been eagerly anticipating since the start of my PhD. The findings were not just interesting – they were captivating, sparking fresh insights into the fundamental nature of our universe.

"It’s moments like these that remind me why I’m passionate about cosmology.”

The Desi instrument uses 5,000 tiny robots within a mountaintop telescope, near Tucson, Arizona.

Scientists were able to map the cosmos as it was billions of years ago and traced its growth to what it is today, using light from distant objects in space which are only now reaching Desi.

Professor Carlos Frenk, of Durham University’s Department of Physics and a member of the Desi team, described the findings as “hugely exciting”.

He said: “Never before has mankind measured the basic properties of our universe with such precision.”

At present, Lambda CDM, a cosmological model that describes the structure and evolution of the universe, is seen by scientists as the leading framework determining how the universe is evolving.

It includes both a weakly interacting type of matter, known as cold dark matter (CDM), and dark energy – also referred to as Lambda.

According to the model, both matter and dark matter slow down the universe’s expansion, while dark energy speeds it up.

Scientists say that while the Lambda CDM model does a good job of describing results from previous experiments and how the universe looks throughout time, Desi’s first-year results are starting to reveal subtle differences.

Dr Seshadri Nadathur, from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, who led parts of the analysis, said: “These results are very exciting, because there are some hints that the data don’t agree as well with the Lambda CDM model as we were expecting, which may be telling us something important about dark energy.

“It is too early to give a definitive answer just yet, but we’ve only analysed a small part of the Desi dataset so far.

“We’re looking forward to finding out if these hints of tensions become more severe when we add more data.”

Researchers say that as Desi gathers more data during its five-year survey, results will become even more precise, and could potentially trigger a need to revise the standard model of the universe.

The research is being presented at the American Physical Society meeting, in the US, and the Rencontres de Moriond, in Italy, and has been published online as a pre-print on the arXiv open-access site.

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Size and Scale of the Universe

Jan 01, 2020

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Size and Scale of the Universe. Image courtesy of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, & Voit; Addison Wesley, 2002. Earth. Planet where we all live Comprised primarily of rock Spherical in shape 12,700 km in diameter

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Size and Scale of the Universe Image courtesy of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, & Voit; Addison Wesley, 2002

Earth • Planet where we all live • Comprised primarily of rock • Spherical in shape • 12,700 km in diameter • It would take 17 days to circumnavigate the globe driving a car at 100 km/hr • At the speed of light, it would take 0.13 seconds to go all the way around Earth.

Sun • Star that Earth orbits • Composed primarily of hydrogen and helium gas • Uses nuclear fusion in its core to generate heat and light to allow itself to resist the crushing weight of its own mass • Spherical in shape • 1.39 Million km in diameter

Earth & Sun • The Sun’s diameter is 109 times greater than that of Earth • Over 1 million Earths would fit inside the Sun’s volume • Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 150 million kilometers. This distance is called an Astronomical Unit (AU) • It would take 11,780 Earths lined up side to side to bridge the 1 AU between Earth and Sun.

The Solar System • 8.5 planets, thousands and thousands of planetoids and asteroids, billions of comets and meteoroids • Mostly distributed in a disk about the Sun • Sun blows a constant wind of charged gas into interplanetary space, called the Solar Wind Boundary between Solar Wind and interstellar space at 100 AU from the Sun (200 AU diameter)

The Solar Neighborhood • The region of the Galaxy within about 32.6 light-years of the Sun (65 light-years diameter) is considered its neighborhood. • Here stars move generally with the Sun in its orbit around the center of the Galaxy • This region is inside a large bubble of hot interstellar gas called the Local Bubble. Here the gas temperature is about 1 million degrees Kelvin and the density is 1000 times less than average interstellar space. To Center of Galaxy The image is 390 light-years across. Direction of Galactic Rotation

You Are Here The Milky Way Galaxy The Milky Way Galaxy is a giant disk of stars 160,000 light-years across and 1,000 light-years thick. The Sun is located at the edge of a spiral arm, 30,000 light-years from the center It takes 250 Million years for the Sun to complete one orbit There are over 100 Billion stars in the Milky Way The Spiral arms are only 5% more dense than average, and are the locations of new star formation

The Local Group • Contains 3 large spiral galaxies--Milky Way, Andromeda (M31), and Triangulum (M33)—plus a few dozen dwarf galaxies with elliptical or irregular shapes. • Gravitationally bound together—orbiting about a common center of mass • Ellipsoidal in shape • About 6.5 million light-years in diameter

A cluster of many groups and clusters of galaxies • Largest cluster is the Virgo cluster containing over a thousand galaxies. • Clusters and groups of galaxies are gravitationally bound together, however the clusters and groups spread away from each other as the Universe expands. • The Local Supercluster gets bigger with time • It has a flattened shape • The Local Group is on the edge of the majority of galaxies • The Local Supercluster is about 130 Million light-years across The Local Supercluster

1.3 Billion light-years The Universe • Surveys of galaxies reveal a web-like or honeycomb structure to the Universe • Great walls and filaments of matter surrounding voids containing no galaxies • Probably 100 Billion galaxies in the Universe The plane of the Milky Way Galaxy obscures our view of what lies beyond. This creates the wedge-shaped gaps in all-sky galaxy surveys such as those shown here.

The Universe The observable Universe is 27 Billion light-years in diameter. Computer Simulation

1) The Standard Ruler There are two basic methods for measuring astronomical distances • Use knowledge of physical and/or geometric properties of an object to relate an angular size with a physical size to determine distance. • Ex: Parallax, Moving Clusters, Time Delays, Water MASERs • Considered to be a direct or absolute measurement. R  d d = R/Tan()  R/

Requires very precise measurements of stellar positions, and long baselines Need telescopes with high resolution, and must observe over several years. Hipparchos satellite measured distances to tens of thousands of stars within 1,500 light-years of the Sun. Trigonometric Parallax

Use knowledge of physical and/or empirical properties of an object to determine its Luminosity, which yields distance via the Inverse Square Law of Light. Ex: Cepheid Variables, Supernovae, TRGB, Tully-Fisher Considered to be relative until tied to an absolute calibration. 2) The Standard Candle b = L/4d2

Cepheid Variable Stars There is a kind of giant star whose surface pulsates in and out with a regular period. That period of pulsation is related to the Luminosity of the star. LMC contains hundreds of known Cepheids all at the same distance. Which allows for robust determination of the Period Luminosity Relationship.

To measure cosmological distances a ladder of methods is used to reach further out into the Universe. Each “rung” in the ladder of distance measuring methods depends on the calibration of the methods “below.”

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The shape of our universe can be similar to a Vacuole in the cell. The universe is called all things between time and space , all planets, stars, galaxies, black hole, light, space between radiation, Atomic particles, dark matter hot and cold And dark energy is included. The diameter of the universe varies. And it is not possible to measure it completely, because the size grows or decreases over time. After the end of our universe, the other Universe starts. It is not possible at all to say exactly what the size of our universe is right, but by some experiments, by our own experience, by our imagination and other objects of proof, some thoughts have been expressed by some science. Our universe can be considered composed of many particles, spaces and many types of electromagnetic waves, light, radiation is universe., how big is the size of our universe that it is not possible for human beings to detect or measure it, but can only be imagined, the reason is that for measuring the size of the universe, there is no intelligence available to animals like humans. It appears that even in the universe there existed a developed civilization, such fantasies which can actually be in the universe. ,Our universe can also be a type of structure of a solid, in which atoms can have electron protons neutrons, nucleus type, galaxy, stars and planet, satellites, other particles etc Dr. Bhaboota Ram Chouhan "The Real Size of our Universe" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-4 , June 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd23674.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/physics/astrophysics/23674/the-real-size-of-our-universe/dr-bhaboota-ram-chouhan

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2024 NHFP Fellows

Meet the 2024 nasa hubble fellowship program fellows, jaren ashcraft.

Host Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara

Proposal Title: Optimizing the Vector Field for Next-generation Astrophysics

Jaren Ashcraft grew up on the Big Island of Hawai'i. He earned his bachelor’s degree in optical engineering from the University of Rochester in 2019, and master’s in optical sciences from the University of Arizona in 2022. Jaren is currently pursuing his doctorate in optical sciences at the University of Arizona supervised by Dr. Ewan Douglas, and will graduate in the summer of 2024.

As a Sagan Fellow at UCSB, Jaren will study how optical polarization can limit the ability of next-generation observatories to directly image Earth-like exoplanets. This phenomenon, known as polarization aberration, is particularly problematic for the ground-based 30-meter Extremely Large Telescopes and the future space-based Habitable Worlds Observatory. Jaren will construct integrated optical models to assess the sensitivity of coronagraphs to the polarization aberrations of these observatories. He will then explore strategies to mitigate the influence of polarization aberrations on astronomical observations, including investigating novel technologies like metasurfaces and liquid crystals to serve as compensators.

Vishal Baibhav

Host Institution: Columbia University

Proposal Title: Dancing with Black Holes: Harnessing Gravitational Waves to Understand the Formation of Black Holes

Vishal Baibhav grew up near New Delhi, India. He earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in 2016. In 2021, he earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Professor Emanuele Berti. His research focused on black hole spectroscopy and gravitational-wave astrophysics. Currently, he is a CIERA postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University.

Despite breakthrough detections of compact-object mergers by LIGO, Virgo, and Kagra detectors, the birthplace and the origin of these compact objects remain unknown. Vishal's research is focused on fundamental questions such as how, when, and where these binaries form, and what physics drives their evolution. He is interested in understanding the life of stars that evolved into merging black holes and the environments that nurtured them. With future gravitational-wave detections, Vishal aims to address key questions about the formation of compact objects, specifically how black holes and neutron stars acquire their spins. As an Einstein Fellow, he will explore whether these spins are inherited from progenitor stars, or if stochastic processes and natal kicks during core collapse play a significant role in shaping them.

Kiersten Boley

Host Institution: Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory

Proposal Title: Identifying the Key Materials for Planet Formation and Evolution

Kiersten Boley grew up in Rome, Georgia. She earned her associate’s in physics at Georgia Highlands College before transferring to Georgia Institute of Technology where she earned her bachelor’s in physics in 2019. Kiersten earned a master’s degree in astronomy at The Ohio State University in 2021. She spent 2022 as an IPAC visiting graduate student at Caltech, working with Dr. Jessie Christiansen. Currently, Kiersten is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at The Ohio State University where she will earn her doctorate in astronomy in May 2024, advised by Professor Ji Wang, Professor Wendy Panero, and Dr. Jessie Christiansen.

Kiersten’s research investigates how elemental abundances impact planet formation and interior evolution through planet detection and interior modeling. Her interdisciplinary research aims to determine the materials required for planet formation by planet type and how their mineral compositions may impact the long-term evolution and habitability of rocky planets. As a Sagan Fellow, Kiersten will continue to study exoplanets through population studies focused on unraveling the dependence of planet formation on galactic location and stellar abundance using observational data. Additionally, she will investigate the long-term evolution and water cycling on rocky planets using theoretical interior models based on experimental data.

Michael Calzadilla

Host Institution: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Proposal Title: A Multiwavelength View of the Evolving Baryon Cycle in Galaxy Clusters

Michael Calzadilla grew up in Tampa, Florida. As a first-generation college student, he earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of South Florida in 2015. He subsequently crossed the pond to complete a master’s degree in astronomy as a Gates Cambridge scholar under the guidance of Professor Andrew Fabian at the University of Cambridge. Michael will complete his doctorate in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2024 with his advisor Professor Michael McDonald.

Michael’s work focuses on multiwavelength observations of galaxy clusters to study the baryon cycle that drives the evolution of all galaxies. The largest galaxies residing in these clusters grow via material cooling from their hot atmospheres, which is balanced by feedback from star formation and active galactic nuclei. As part of the South Pole Telescope collaboration, Michael’s work is among the first to leverage recent Sunyaev-Zeldovich-based detections of galaxy clusters to observe this cycling of material out to unprecedented redshifts.

As a Hubble Fellow, Michael will develop machine learning techniques for characterizing the thousands of galaxy clusters being discovered by next-generation cosmological surveys resulting in clean, unbiased samples of the earliest galaxy clusters. Using synergies with large X-ray, optical, and radio datasets, he will seek to answer when galaxy clusters first dynamically relaxed, and how the effectiveness of supermassive black hole feedback has changed over time. He will also use new observatories for more targeted follow-up to investigate the role of feedback-induced turbulence in regulating galaxy growth.

Sanskriti Das

Host Institution: Stanford University

Proposal Title: Where the Energetic Universe Meets the Hot Universe

Sanskriti grew up in India and earned her bachelor’s in physics at Presidency University Kolkata in 2015, and her master's in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2017. She earned her doctorate in astronomy from The Ohio State University, USA in 2022. Since then, she has been an independent postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.

Sanskriti is interested in the co-evolution of galactic disks and the circumgalactic medium (CGM) through multiphase gas cycles between the disk and the CGM. Faint diffuse CGM signals tend to hide behind bright, variable, and complex backgrounds. Sanskriti devises innovative observing strategies and develops novel data reduction and analysis techniques to extract that signal. Using millimeter and X-ray telescopes, she looks for the hot CGM, the reservoir of baryons, metals, and energy missing from the stars and interstellar medium (ISM). She studies cold CGM using radio telescopes, looking for the accreting raw material for star formation that is missing from the ISM. She uses multiwavelength (radio, UV, optical, IR, and X-ray) data to study the corresponding galactic disks and connect their properties with the CGM. She is passionate about the history of astronomy and is actively involved in mentoring, outreach, and resolving gender inequity in astronomy as well.

As a Hubble Fellow, Sanskriti is excited to unravel the integrated impact of galactic feedback on the CGM using multiwavelength observations, and inform the next generation of millimeter and X-ray missions.

Jordy Davelaar

Host Institution: Princeton University

Proposal Title: Unraveling the Physics of Accreting Black Hole Binaries

Jordy Davelaar was born and raised in The Netherlands in a small country village called De Klomp. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and astronomy at Radboud University in Nijmegen. In 2020, Jordy earned his doctorate in astrophysics from Radboud, where he worked under the supervision of Monika Mościbrodkza and Heino Falcke. After graduation, he has been a joint postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics.

Jordy’s primary research focus is modeling the emission produced in the accretion flows of supermassive black holes. To this end, he combines high-performance computing magnetofluid simulations with radiation transfer methods. His work on black hole accretion flows is used to interpret millimeter, near-infrared, and radio observations, e.g. the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. More recently, Jordy started developing binary black hole models, aiming to predict electromagnetic signatures of Laser Interferometer Space Antenna targets with Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Athena.

A critical component to understanding where and how black holes merge and how they shape galactic evolution is host galaxy identification, which relies on electromagnetic observations. However, the field is still debating major theoretical uncertainties regarding the interaction of the binary with its environment and the potential signatures it might produce. As an Einstein Fellow at Princeton University, Jordy will develop novel accretion flow simulations of merging black hole binaries to identify tell-tale electromagnetic signatures and unravel the physics of accreting black hole binaries.

Alexander Dittmann

Host Institution: Institute for Advanced Study

Proposal Title: Bridging the Gap in Supermassive Black Hole Binary Accretion - From Simulation to Observation

Alexander Dittmann grew up in northern Virginia. He earned undergraduate degrees in physics and astronomy from the University of Illinois in 2018, after which he joined the Astronomy Department at the University of Maryland. He has also worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Center for Computational Astrophysics, and will complete his doctorate under the guidance of Cole Miller in April 2024.

Following his broad interests in high-energy astrophysics and fluid dynamics, Alexander has studied a variety of astrophysical topics from the origins of planetary spins to the final moments of binary supermassive black holes. He has also used data from NASA’s NICER telescope to measure the radii of neutron stars, gleaning insight into the enigmatic nature of matter within their cores. As an Einstein Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, he will leverage cutting-edge simulations and his experience in astrostatistics to connect theoretical studies of binary black holes to the forthcoming bounty of time-domain observations of active galactic nuclei.

Cristhian Garcia-Quintero

Host Institution: Harvard University

Proposal Title: Phenomenological Modified Gravity in the Non-linear Regime and Improving BAO Measurements with Stage-IV Surveys

Cristhian Garcia-Quintero was born and raised in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in 2017. While still an undergraduate student, Cristhian was selected for an internship program, co-funded by the U.S. embassy in Mexico, allowing him to conduct research at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he returned to pursue his doctorate in physics in 2018 under the guidance of Professor Mustapha Ishak.

Cristhian's research is focused on large-scale structure analyses to improve our understanding of cosmology using ongoing and upcoming galaxy surveys. Cristhian is interested in testing the standard model of cosmology using current and future cosmological data while particularly emphasizing phenomenological modified gravity tests and data-driven approaches. Cristhian is heavily involved in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) where he has contributed to the Baryons Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) analysis. Cristhian is also working towards performing cosmological analyses based on cross-correlations between DESI and other surveys.

As an Einstein Fellow, Cristhian will extend his work on modified gravity to explore tests of gravity beyond the linear regime. Additionally, Cristhian will work towards improving the BAO measurements for DESI year 5 analysis and perform analyses that can benefit from synergies between Stage-IV surveys.

Amelia (Lia) Hankla

Host Institution: University of Maryland, College Park

Proposal Title: Explaining Radio to X-ray Observations of Luminous Black Holes with a Multizone Outflowing Corona Model

Lia Hankla grew up in Lafayette, Colorado. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics and a minor in oboe performance from Princeton University in 2017 and then spent a year in Heidelberg, Germany as a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. In 2018, Lia returned home to Colorado for her doctorate in physics, where she collaborated with Jason Dexter, Mitch Begelman, and Dmitri Uzdensky with the support of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. After completing her doctorate in the summer of 2023, Lia joined the University of Maryland, College Park as a Joint Space-Sciences Institute Postdoctoral Fellow and a Multimessenger Plasma Physics Center Fellow.

Lia is interested in anything involving plasmas and black holes, especially accretion disks and their surrounding coronae. Although these plasmas just outside the event horizon hold the key to unraveling how black holes evolved over time, they remain poorly understood because of the difficulty connecting small-scale particle processes to the global scales of the entire accretion disk and corona. Interpreting observations of radio to X-ray emission from around luminous black holes requires understanding how and where magnetic energy dissipates into plasma particle energy.

As an Einstein Fellow, Lia will decipher how these dissipation processes, including turbulence and magnetic reconnection, can further our understanding of nonthermal particle acceleration and winds in accretion disks and coronae. Her research aims to shed light on recent spectral timing and X-ray polarization observations of both stellar-mass and supermassive black holes, and to resolve long-standing questions regarding these mysterious objects in our universe.

Cheng-Han Hsieh

Host Institution: The University of Texas at Austin

Proposal Title: A Deep Dive into the Early Evolution of Protoplanetary Disk Substructures and the Onset of Planet and Star Formation

Cheng-Han Hsieh grew up in Taichung City, Taiwan, and earned his undergraduate degree in physics from National Tsing Hua University in 2018. He stayed at Yale for his graduate studies and will complete his doctorate in the summer of 2024 under the supervision of Professor Héctor G. Arce.

Cheng-Han’s research focuses on using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to characterize the substructure evolution within protostellar disks, where young stars and planets are forming. These substructures manifest varied natures - some potentially sculpted by pre-existing planets, while others, such as dense rings, may act as nurseries for the formation of planetesimals and subsequent planet generations. In particular, he is interested in pinpointing the early formation of disk substructures, which traces the onset of planet formation. As a Sagan Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, Cheng-Han will undertake a comprehensive statistical study of disk substructures around the youngest protostars, discerning the relationship between circumstellar disk properties and the primordial conditions of planetary systems. Ultimately, he aims to chart the full trajectory of giant planet formation.

Proposal Title: The Role of Magnetic Fields in Galaxy Cluster's Diffuse Structure Formation

Yue Hu grew up in Yuxi City, Yunnan, China. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in automation engineering from Tongji University and the University of Bologna in 2018. Yue is poised to earn his doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in spring 2024, supervised by Professor Alexandre Lazarian. During his doctorate, he developed innovative techniques for tracing 3D magnetic fields across various astrophysical conditions.

Yue's research focuses on the ubiquitous turbulence and magnetic fields in astrophysics, bridging the gap from the microscopic physics of cosmic rays to the macroscopic evolution of galaxy clusters. His work employs a blend of MHD turbulence theories, numerical simulations, and physics-informed machine-learning approaches. He has mapped the megaparsec-scale magnetic field in the El Gordo cluster using the synchrotron intensity gradient technique and MeerKAT radio observations.

As a Hubble Fellow, Yue will explore the role of magnetic fields in the evolution and formation of galaxy clusters, using cosmological simulations, and radio observations from VLA, LOFAR, and MeerKAT, alongside X-ray observations from Chandra and XMM-Newton. He aims to deepen our understanding of the magnetized galaxy clusters, which are among the universe's largest gravitationally bound structures. The research will also facilitate predictive models for the Square Kilometre Array and the Lynx X-ray observatory.

Wynn Jacobson-Galán

Host Institution: California Institute of Technology

Proposal Title: Final Moments: Uncovering the Rate of Enhanced Red Supergiant Mass-loss in the Local Volume

Wynn Jacobson-Galán grew up in Los Angeles where he attended Santa Monica Community College before completing a bachelor’s degree in physics at UC Santa Cruz in 2018. Wynn was an IDEAS Fellow at Northwestern University where he earned a master’s degree in 2021. Wynn is currently an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at UC Berkeley under the supervision of Professor Raffaella Margutti and will finish his doctorate in summer 2024.

Wynn’s research focuses on combining multi-wavelength observations (radio to X-ray) of a variety of supernova types to create a complete picture of the final stages of stellar instability and mass-loss before explosion. His primary interest is the utilization of ultra-rapid observations of young supernovae in order to bridge the gap between stellar life and death. As a Hubble Fellow, Wynn will probe the late-stage evolution of red supergiant stars through observations and modeling of type II supernovae. Using transient sky surveys, he will construct the first volume-limited, spectroscopically-complete sample of type II supernovae discovered within days of explosion in order to constrain the final evolutionary stages of red supergiant stars in the local universe. Additionally, Wynn will utilize ultraviolet spectroscopy/imaging of both young and old core-collapse supernovae to constrain the physics of circumstellar shockwaves and the mass-loss histories of red supergiants in the decades-to-centuries before explosion.

Rafael Luque

Host Institution: The University of Chicago

Proposal Title: Understanding the Origin and Nature of Sub-Neptunes

Born in Priego de Córdoba (Spain), Rafael Luque earned his bachelor’s in physics from the University of Granada (Spain) in 2015 and his master’s in physics in 2017 from the University of Heidelberg (Germany). He earned his doctorate in 2021 thanks to a Doctoral INPhINIT Fellowship from the European Union and “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, having worked with Professor Enric Palle and Dr. Grzegorz Nowak at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Spain). Currently, Rafael is a "Margarita Salas" Fellow at the University of Chicago, working with Professor Jacob Bean.

Rafael's research aims to understand the origin and nature of sub-Neptunes. This class of planets has no counterpart in the solar system, but they exist in (approximately) every other star in the Galaxy. Several theories and models can explain their existence and demographic properties, but they make opposing predictions about their internal structure, location at birth, evolution history, or atmospheric composition. As a Sagan Fellow, Rafael will exploit the synergies between ground- and space-based observatories to build a sample of sub-Neptunes with precise and accurate measured properties (such as radius, mass, and atmospheric composition) that break the modeling degeneracies inherent to this class and help us infer a unique answer about their properties.

Madeleine McKenzie

Host Institution: Carnegie Observatories

Proposal Title: Uncovering the Unknown Origins of Globular Clusters

Madeleine McKenzie is an Aussie from Perth, Western Australia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in physics and computer science from the University of Western Australia (UWA) in 2018. In 2020, she earned her master’s in astrophysics at UWA and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) working on hydrodynamical simulations of globular cluster formation. For her doctorate, she transitioned from theory to observations to work with Dr. David Yong on the chemical abundance analysis of globular clusters at the Australian National University and is set to graduate at the end of 2024.

Following her passion for these ancient collections of stars, Madeleine has set the lofty goal of redefining what is and is not a globular cluster. With next-generation telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope discovering dense stellar structures in the early universe, understanding the different formation channels of the star clusters and dwarf galaxies in our backyard is becoming more important. As a Hubble Fellow, she will utilize kinematic and chemical element abundance variations, particularly that of iron peak and neutron capture process elements, to characterize the diversity of star clusters around our Milky Way. Using the Magellan Telescopes operated by the Carnegie Observatories, she will undertake an ambitious observing program to identify which balls of stars are masquerading as globular clusters using a combination of high-precision chemical abundances and isotopic analysis. The outcomes from her project will help improve our understanding of fields such as star formation, nucleosynthesis, stellar evolution, and the accreted halo of our Milky Way.

Jed McKinney

Proposal Title: The Role of Dust in Shaping the Evolution of Galaxies

Jed McKinney grew up between Old Greenwich, CT and Brussels, BE. He achieved his bachelor’s degree at Tufts University in 2017, and his doctorate in astronomy from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2022. During his studies Jed was an IPAC Visiting Graduate Fellow at Caltech. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin.

Jed’s research focuses on understanding the lifecycle of galaxies through the lens of dust. Dust, a by-product of star formation like interstellar pollution, is a small component of galaxies by mass but plays a transformative role in how we observe, interpret, and model them. Jed’s research uses both observations and simulations to directly test and contextualize the nuanced role of dust in galaxy formation.

As a Hubble Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, Jed will combine detailed spectroscopic surveys using James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA with large multi-wavelength imaging programs and simulations. Jed will measure directly the properties of dust grains in distant galaxies to uncover the relationship between dust, star- and supermassive black-hole formation out to early times in the history of the universe. This will enable a new and unbiased perspective on the mechanics of galaxy formation, one that is rooted in a comprehensive census of dust.

Keefe Mitman

Host Institution: Cornell University

Proposal Title: Decoding General Relativity with Next-Generation Numerical Relativity Waveforms

Keefe Mitman was raised in Madison, Wisconsin. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from Columbia University in 2019 and his doctorate in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 2024. At Caltech, he studied black holes, gravitational waves, and numerical relativity with Professor Saul Teukolsky and the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration.

Keefe’s research largely focuses on utilizing results from the gravitational wave theory community to improve contemporary numerical relativity simulations of binary black hole coalescences. One such example of this was using these simulations to calculate and model an intriguing and not-yet observed prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity called the gravitational wave memory effect. This effect corresponds to the permanent net displacement that two observers will experience due to the passage of transient gravitational radiation and is of immense interest to those working on testing general relativity, probing the fundamental structure of spacetime, and understanding the enigmas of quantum gravity.

As an Einstein Fellow at Cornell University, Keefe will continue his work with the SXS Collaboration to build models of the gravitational waves that can be observed by current gravitational wave detectors. In particular, he will focus on constructing waveform models that contain the memory effect to help observe this perplexing phenomenon, as well as others, for the first time.

Sarah Moran

Host Institution: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Proposal Title: From Stars to Storms: Planetary Cloud Seeding with Sulfur-Based Hazes

Sarah Moran grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She earned her bachelor’s degree with a major in Astrophysics and a minor in Science and Public Policy at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York in 2015. She earned her doctorate in planetary sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 2021, having worked under Sarah Hörst and Nikole Lewis. During her graduate studies, she also served as a Space Policy Fellow with the Space Studies Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Sarah is currently the Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory with Mark Marley.

Sarah’s research combines laboratory astrophysics and atmospheric modeling to understand the aerosols that form in substellar atmospheres, from solar system worlds to exoplanets to brown dwarfs. Aerosols act as tracers of the physics and chemistry of these atmospheres, giving insight into the processes that shape the observable spectra of these objects. As a Sagan Fellow, Sarah will experimentally investigate the effect of sulfur species in forming atmospheric hazes and examine whether such particles enhance or inhibit exotic exoplanet cloud formation. These studies will help interpret ongoing and future observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, and next-generation observatories.

Andrew Saydjari

Proposal Title: Inferring Kinematic and Chemical Maps of Galactic Dust

Andrew Saydjari grew up in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and bachelor’s and master’s in chemistry at Yale University in 2018, with a thesis on organometallic catalysis. Andrew then moved to Harvard University as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and will complete his doctorate in physics spring 2024, advised by Douglas Finkbeiner.

Andrew’s work focuses on combining astrophysics, statistics, and high-performance coding to study the chemical, spatial, and kinematic variations in the dust that permeates the Milky Way. Dust is an important building block in matter assembly, and a driver of the interstellar environment and galactic foreground. As a Hubble Fellow at Princeton, Andrew will use new, unbiased measurements of near infrared diffuse interstellar bands to precisely map the kinematics and chemistry of galactic dust. He strives to constrain feedback processes shaping the interstellar medium and improve compositional constraints on dust. He will develop the rigorous statistical machinery necessary to combine spectroscopic surveys with upcoming photometry from SPHEREx and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to answer his motivating questions: “What is dust made of, where is it, and how is it moving?”

Peter Senchyna

Proposal Title: Bridging the Gap: Bringing the First Galaxies into Focus with Local Laboratories

Peter Senchyna grew up in rural Venersborg / Battle Ground, Washington, and earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington. He earned his doctorate working with Dan Stark at the University of Arizona in 2020. Since then, Peter has held a Carnegie Fellowship at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena.

Peter's research is focused on understanding the first generations of massive stars and the galaxies for which they laid the foundations. Our understanding of how the universe was reionized and the earliest phases of galaxy assembly are inextricably bound-up with uncertainties in the physics of metal-poor massive stars, including the potentially profound but uncertain role of binary mass transfer. As a Hubble Fellow, Peter will bring new James Webb Space Telescope observations into conversation with several unique datasets in the local universe. These include extraordinarily deep ultraviolet continuum spectroscopy of nearby extremely metal-poor blue compact dwarf galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope, and a large Magellan narrowband imaging campaign dissecting dwarf irregulars at the edge of the Local Group. Peter aims to unite these observations spanning from our cosmic backyard to redshift ~10 to cast light on both the nature of galaxies at cosmic dawn and massive star evolution under (near-)primordial conditions.

Raphael Skalidis

Proposal Title: Magnetic Fields in the Multiphase Interstellar Medium

Raphael Skalidis grew up in Rethymno, Crete, Greece. He obtained his doctorate from the Department of physics at the University of Crete in 2022, and later moved to the California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow. His research focuses on the interstellar medium (ISM).

Observatories such as LOFAR and the Planck satellite have revealed that a coherent magnetic field permeates the different phases of the ISM, challenging some common conceptions. As a Hubble Fellow, Raphael aims to develop theories about the role of magnetic fields in shaping the multiphase ISM. He will follow a multifaceted approach that will include comparisons between synthetic data and observations, analytical calculations, and numerical simulations. Raphael’s research promises to advance our knowledge of the magnetized ISM which is critical for understanding galaxy evolution and star formation.

Adam Smercina

Host Institution: Space Telescope Science Institute

Proposal Title: A Portrait of the Triangulum: Advancing a New Frontier of Galaxy Evolution with Resolved Stars

Adam Smercina is a native of Northwest Ohio, growing up in the small town of Oak Harbor near the shore of Lake Erie. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, with a concentration in astrophysics, from the University of Toledo in 2015. He then moved north to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he ultimately earned his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics in August 2020, advised by Eric Bell. Adam was supported during his doctorate work by a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Since 2020, he has worked with Julianne Dalcanton and Ben Williams at the University of Washington as a postdoctoral scholar.

Adam's research focuses on reconstructing the evolutionary histories of galaxies by resolving them into their constituent stars. We are in an exciting new era where the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope operate simultaneously, providing better access to the resolved stellar populations in individual nearby galaxies than ever before. These galaxies' constituent stars are tremendously information-rich, providing an archaeological record of their host galaxy's evolution. As a Hubble Fellow at STScI, Adam will use these stars to chart the evolution of structure, star formation, and interaction in galaxies throughout the Local Volume, including a targeted study of the Triangulum Galaxy, M33. The first large galaxy with panchromatic Hubble+Webb observations across its disk, M33 is among the most important members of the Local Group, and exists at a mass where the physics driving the evolution of spiral galaxies is poorly understood. This work will establish a foundational blueprint for a new era of studying resolved stellar populations in large galaxies from space, setting the benchmark for future facilities studying more distant, cosmologically-representative populations of galaxies.

Shangjia Zhang

Proposal Title: Probing Young Planet Populations with 3D Self-Consistent Disk Thermodynamics

Shangjia Zhang was born and raised in Beijing, China. He earned bachelor’s degrees in astronomy and physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2018. He is currently completing his doctorate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, under the guidance of Professor Zhaohuan Zhu.

Shangjia's research interests focus on several aspects of protoplanetary disks, including constraining dust properties and disk thermal structure, and inferring potential young planet populations from disk substructures. As a Sagan Fellow, he will use state-of-the-art radiation hydrodynamic simulations to self-consistently study disk thermodynamics. By deepening our understanding of disk physics, his goal is to provide better explanations for disk images and kinematics obtained from radio interferometers and giant telescopes. By bridging theory with observations, he aims to distinguish substructures’ planetary and non-planetary origins and uncover more young planets.

Host Institution: University of Chicago

Proposal Title: Enabling Radial Velocity Detection of Earth-Twins Through Data-Driven Algorithms and Community Collaboration

Lily Zhao grew up in west Philadelphia. She earned bachelors’ degrees in biology, mathematics, and physics from the University of Chicago in 2016. Lily was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at Yale University, where she earned her doctorate in astronomy in 2021 under the supervision of Professor Debra Fischer. Since 2021, Lily has been a Flatiron Research Fellow at the Center for Computational Astrophysics.

Lily's research advances precision spectroscopy with a focus on dynamical discovery and characterization of lower-mass exoplanets. She is the project scientist for EXPRES, an ultra-stabilized optical spectrograph. Lily also leads the Extreme Stellar Signals Project, a community-wide collaboration with over 40 members working together to mitigate stellar signals, which are now the largest source of scatter in precision radial velocity measurements. As a Sagan Fellow at the University of Chicago, Lily will develop empirical methods for mitigating stellar signals using the full spectral format and continue coordinating community efforts.

Sebastian Zieba

Proposal Title: Characterization of Rocky Exoplanet Surfaces and Atmospheres in the JWST Era

Sebastian Zieba grew up in Salzburg, Austria. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Innsbruck in 2017. He remained in Innsbruck to pursue his master’s degree, during which he discovered transiting comets orbiting the exoplanet host star Beta Pictoris. After completing his master’s in 2020, he moved to Heidelberg, Germany to pursue a doctorate in astronomy under the supervision of Professor Laura Kreidberg, which he will complete in the summer of 2024.

During Sebastian’s doctorate research at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, he has pushed the boundary of atmospheric characterization down to small, rocky exoplanets. He has used space-based telescopes like the Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and James Webb Space Telescope to cover an extensive temperature range, from lava worlds with outgassed rock vapor atmospheres caused by scorching temperatures exceeding 2000 Kelvin to terrestrial planets with temperatures around 400 K, more comparable to our own inner solar system.

As the Principal Investigator (PI) of two accepted Cycle 2 Webb proposals, Sebastian will characterize the surfaces of hot, airless planets, measure their surface roughness, and explore the transition region between rocky and gaseous planets. As a Sagan Fellow, he will analyze these upcoming observations to unravel the geological history of rocky exoplanets and determine the conditions under which these small worlds retain atmospheres.

Contact the NHFP

[email protected] NASA Hubble Fellowship Program

IMAGES

Determining the size of the universe
How big is the universe?
The Size of the Universe
The universe.
What Is The Size Of The Whole Universe?
Orbiter.ch Space News: Largest 3D Universe Map Released

VIDEO

Universe Size Comparison 2023
Universe Size Comparison Extended 2023 From Microorganism To Solar Systems
How is the universe on a larger scale?
Size of the universe
The Size Of Universe
Universe Size Comparison in 60 seconds 🌎🌌

COMMENTS

How Big is the Universe?
The Universe is so big because it is constantly expanding, and it does so at a speed that even exceeds the speed of light. Space itself is actually growing, and this is going on for around 14 billion years or so. In this amount of time, with speed greater than the speed of light, the Universe gradually grew, and it still expands even to this day.
How big is the universe?
If the universe expanded at the speed of light during inflation, it should be 10^23, or 100 sextillion. One explanation for this, outlined by NASA in 2019, is that dark energy events may have ...
Scale of the Universe
Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world. About us Resources Create with Us! Wiki Objects Community. Hello! Enter your email to subscribe to our newsletter! We have some big things coming and you don't want to miss out. 🤯🚀
How Large is the Universe?
For 4K space, and more great History and Science than you'll ever watch, check out our sister network... https://www.magellantv.com/featuredThe universe has ...
The Size of Space
The Size of Space. Made by Neal Agarwal. Swipe left to start Use the Right Arrow Key or Swipe Left to Start. The Size Of Space. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. - Carl Sagan. Made with by Neal Agarwal. Explore more posts on Neal.fun. Buy me a coffee!
How Big Is Our Universe?
History, Space Science, Scientists and Inventors, Universe. Type. Websites. This website shows how generations of explorers have taken us, step by step, ever farther into the vast expanse of the universe. It is a journey of discovery that has only just begun. Go to Website.
Inside Einstein's Universe
This interactive presentation uses a series of hands-on demonstrations to model the size and scale of the universe using everyday objects and travel through time with volunteer "human photons" to discover what the universe looked like in its infancy. ... This presentation and the accompanying hands-on demonstrations describe the ...
APOD: 2018 October 7
The featured interactive flash animation, a modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten , is a new window to many of the known scales of our universe. By moving the scroll bar across the bottom, you can explore a diversity of sizes, while clicking on different items will bring up descriptive information. Tomorrow's picture ...
Cosmic Times
As a result, the Universe was found to be about 6 billion years old. 1965 Age: 10-25 Billion Years Size: 25 Billion Light Years. The farthest objects in 1965 were the quasars. The most distant known quasar, named 3C9, was found to be about 12 billion light years away. This gives a size for the universe of about 25 billion light years.
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of energy and matter, and the structures they form, from sub-atomic particles to entire galaxies.Space and time, according to the prevailing cosmological theory of the Big Bang, emerged together 13.787 ± 0.020 ...
How can we comprehend the size of the Universe?
To see a human on Earth from the altitude of the ISS, a telescope the size of Hubble would be needed. The scale of a human is less than 1/5,000,000 the scale of Earth, but Earth is just a ...
Size of the Universe over time
Age and size of the Universe The lives of stars The solar neighbourhood Exoplanets and proto-planetary discs Black Holes, Quasars, and Active Galaxies Formation of stars Composition of the Universe Gravitational lenses Multi-messenger astronomy Europe & Hubble History Timeline Launch 1990
Overview
The Universe's History The origin, evolution, and nature of the universe have fascinated and confounded humankind for centuries. New ideas and major discoveries made during the 20th century transformed cosmology - the term for the way we conceptualize and study the universe - although much remains unknown. Here is the history of the universe according […]
Universe Size Comparison by Elijah Acierto on Prezi
A Cosmic Size Comparison Topic Sun Sirius A Solar System Charon Uranus Earth Venus Europa Neptune Jupiter Saturn Mars Mercury Homunculus Nebula Pillars Of Creation Triangulum Galaxy 100,000 LY Andromeda Galaxy Milky Way Galaxy Petameter Stingray Nebula Cat's Eye Nebula NGC 4889 UY ... How to make your branding presentation a success; March 29 ...
PDF Our Place In Our Galaxy
Universe. Presentation Tip: Many people do not know the difference between the solar system, Galaxy, and universe. It is important to ... The scaled size is 25 miles (40 km) for 1,000 light years (RATIO: 2500 miles across by 25 miles thick - about 100:1 - on
Know The Universe: Astronomy Lesson Presentation
Free Google Slides theme and PowerPoint template. If you are an astronomy teacher you have to see this template. It is specially designed to create a fun presentation about this science. It has a clear background on which we have included a multitude of doodle-style illustrations that your audience will love. In addition, the typography of the ...
The origins of the universe facts and information
Here's the theory: In the first 10^-43 seconds of its existence, the universe was very compact, less than a million billion billionth the size of a single atom.
Size and Scale of the Universe
Size and Scale of the Universe Realms of the Universe Image courtesy of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, & Voit; Addison Wesley, 2002. Planet where we all live • Comprised primarily of rock • Spherical in shape • 12,700 km in diameter • It would take 17 days to circumnavigate the globe driving a car at 100 km/hr ...
Indefatigable wonder: how Brian Cox's latest show conveys the immense
Sense of space The locations where Universe was filmed are often used as analogies to describe the physics of astronomical events. (Courtesy: BBC/Brian Cox/Poppy Pinnock) Brian Cox's latest blockbuster television series, Universe, has an ambitious title. In German - a wonderfully to-the-point language - the word for universe is "All".
Size and Scale of the Universe
Presentation Transcript. Comprised primarily of rock • Spherical in shape • 12,700 km in diameter (7,891 miles) • It would take 17 days to circumnavigate the globe driving a car at 100 km/hr (62 mph) • At the speed of light, it would take 0.13 seconds to go all the way around Earth EARTH Size and Scale of the Universe Image Credit: NASA ...
THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE
THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE. THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE. when considering the facts in this presentation, keep in mind: Earth's diameter (distance across center at widest point) approximately = 8,000 miles (12,800 kilometers) ( Seems big, doesn't it?). Meteors, Comets, Asteroids, Moons.
History of the Universe
The history of the universe is outlined in this infographic. Downloads. 6667 × 3750. Sep 9, 2023. png (3.74 MB) Return to top. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. About NASA's Mission; Join Us.
Scientists create 3D map of universe
Scientists have created the largest 3D map of our universe to date. Earth is at the centre of this thin slice of the full map and the magnified section shows the underlying structure of matter in our universe. Each dot is a different galaxy similar in size to our own Milky Way, Image: Claire Lamman/DESI collaboration; custom colormap package by ...
Scientists make 'largest and most precise' 3D map of expanding universe
Scientists have made the largest 3D map of the universe, measuring how fast it has expanded over 11 billion years by using one of the most precise measurements to date.
Size and Scale of the Universe
Presentation Transcript. Size and Scale of the Universe Image courtesy of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, & Voit; Addison Wesley, 2002. Earth • Planet where we all live • Comprised primarily of rock • Spherical in shape • 12,700 km in diameter • It would take 17 days to circumnavigate the globe driving a car at ...
2024 NHFP Fellows
Host Institution: Stanford University Proposal Title: Where the Energetic Universe Meets the Hot Universe Sanskriti grew up in India and earned her bachelor's in physics at Presidency University Kolkata in 2015, and her master's in physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2017.

How Big is the Universe?

Why is the Universe so Big?

Is the Universe Really Infinite?

How Big is the Universe Compared to the Observable Universe?

Does the Universe End?

Where Does Space End?

Will the Universe Last Forever?

Did you Know?

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How big is the universe?

The observable universe

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Scale of the Universe

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Age & Size of the Universe Through the Years

1919 Age: Infinite Size: 300,000 Light Years

1929 Age: 2 Billion Years Size: 280 Million Light Years

1955 Age: 6 Billion Years Size: 4 Billion Light Years

1965 Age: 10-25 Billion Years Size: 25 Billion Light Years

1993 Age: 12-20 Billion Years Size: 30 Billion Light Years

2006 Age: 13.7 Billion Years Size: 94 Billion Light Years

Size of the Universe over time

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Scientists create 3D map of universe

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'Hugely exciting': Scientists make ‘largest and most precise’ 3D map of expanding universe

Size and Scale of the Universe

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Supernovae and scale of the universe

The Large Scale Structure of the Universe

The Distance Scale of the Universe

Scale of the Universe and Constellations

4 - The Scale of the Universe

Assessment 9: Size of the Universe

Scale of the Universe

Scale In the Universe

The Scale of the Universe

Fermi Problems and Scale of the Universe

Scale the Universe