Chapter

12
Space
Exploration

Section
12.1

Explaining the
Universe

page
428
Early

GALAXY collection of stars,

UNIVERSE
planets, gas
and dust held together by
GALAXY Milky Way
gravity
-Edwin Hubble was the
first astronomer to SOLAR
SYSTEM
identify other
galaxies besides
the milky way.

Measuring Distances in Our

Universe
The distance to most stars from Earth are
millions of AUs therefore:
-distances within our Universe are
measured in light
years

1 light year = distance light

will
travel in 1 year

Hubbles Proposal
Edwin Hubble noticed that galaxies
were not staying still but they were
moving away from each other
(based on red shift analysis)
He proposed that the Universe is
expanding,
and galaxies are
moving away
from each other

THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN

OF THE
UNIVERSE

THE BIG BANG THEORY

Since there is evidence that our
Universe is Expanding, it must have
started somewhere!
~13.7 billion years ago there was a
massive explosion and very high
temperatures ~ 1 billion C were
reached
Very Rapid Expansion of a tiny volume

THE OSCILLATING
THEORY
Closed Universe one that will
expand so far and is then drawn
back by gravitational forces, all the
matter will meet again in a Big
Crunch
This theory says the Universe goes
through a series of bangs and crunches
in an ongoing cycle
Currently still expanding from the
most recent explosion

THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN

OF THE SOLAR
SYSTEM

STELLAR COLLISION
THEORY
This Theory says that Our
Solar System was created
from the spin off of
colliding stars!

NEBULAR
Nebulae(Nebula)- clouds of
HYPOTHESIS
Hydrogen gas and dust
between stars
- When pulled together by gravity,
stars form if hot enough
- A nearby exploding star could have
caused a shock wave which started
the process
-As the cloud begins to collapse it
starts to rotate

-4.5 billion years ago, the Sun

became an active star and the
leftover material combined to
form 8 planets, and other
smaller bodies such as moons,
asteroids, and comets.
-Not all the planets formed at
the same time or in the same
waythe inner planets were

TASK
Read Section 12.1 in the textbook
and answer the following questions:
p. 443 #s 1,5,6,7,8,9,11,12.

p. 433 1. Hubble noticed that all galaxies are

moving away from each other.
2. Hubble proposed that the universe is
expanding in all directions, and that the galaxies
have taken the same amount of time to reach
their present positions from an original starting
point.
4. The Oscillating theory states that the universe
is closed and that there is enough matter in
the universe to slow (because of gravity) and
eventually stop the expansion of the
universe. According to this theory, all matter
will
meet again in a Big Crunch.
5. Cosmic background radiation is the
radiation
left over from the Big Bang expansion.

p. 439
1. The nebular hypothesis of solar system
formation is that the Sun and planets formed
when a large nebula condensed and was
collected together by gravity.
2. Our solar system formed more than 4.5
billion
years ago.
3. Inner or terrestrial planets and outer or
Jovian
planets.
4. The distances are too great to be
measured in
astronomical units.

Section
12.2

Galaxies and
Stars

SPIRAL
Our Milky Way Galaxy,
Earth is on a spiral arm,
we see the center on
its side at night

ELLIPITICAL
Some of the oldest and
largest galaxies are
elliptical, more then
50% of galaxies are this
shape

What is a star?
Stars are hot bodies of
glowing gas that vary in
size, mass and temperature.
The color of a star is
determined by its
temperature: the hottest
stars are blue and the
coolest stars are red.

THE EVOLUTION OF
STARS
DWARF STARS

Small
Burn fuel slowly & last a
long time (100 billion
years)
Red dwarfs eventually
change into very hot, but
small, dim white dwarfs
and burn out.

GIANT
STARS

Large, burn fuel

quickly, last a short
time
RED GIANTS slowly
shrink into a white
dwarf which may cool
into a black dwarf
OR
SUPER GIANTS

The Life of a Star

Stage 1 stars are born in Nebula and
condense into a large globule of gas and
dust that contracts under its own gravity
Stage 2 The condensing matter begins to
heat up and glow forming Protostars.
Stage 3 If there is enough matter the
central
temperature reaches 15 million degrees
and
nuclear reactions start.
Stage 4: The star begins to release

The Death of a Star

-When a star starts to run out of hydrogen fuel
I it becomes a red giant or a super giant.
- Red giants grow bigger and form a cloud of gas
called a planetary nebula. As it cools, it becomes
a
white dwarf which will eventually run out of fuel
and die becoming a black dwarf.
-Red super giants may suddenly explode which
is called a supernova. After this explosion,
leftover star material may form a neutron star.
After a large mass star explodes, a large
amount of mass remains and the gravity of the
mass is soo strong that the gas is pulled
inward, decreasing its volume. Eventually,
the gravity is soo strong that nothing can
escape, including light. The massive star then

BLACK HOLE
Sphere of extremely dense
material with a gravitational
pull so strong not even light
can pass out of it!
Created when a SUPER
GIANT star collapses in on
itself

QUASAR
Region of extremely high
energy which develops
around a supermassive black
hole as matter is attracted
into
itself
This energy
makes them the
brightest objects
in the universe.

The Future of Space

Exploration
Pilot
s
Engine
er

Technici
ans

Careers
Related to
Space

Astrona
ut

Scienti
st
Doct
or