preview

Fritz Zwicky Episode 13 Essay

Good Essays
Open Document

Episode thirteen of the Cosmos series expanded on the last parts of space that are still unknown in some way to scientists and casual space enthusiasts. This episode was interesting because it focused on the work of Fritz Zwicky, Vera Rubin, Victor Hess, and the Voyager 1 and 2, all of which discovered aspects of space that were previously unknown or dismissed as fiction. Fritz Zwicky was the most interesting person that the episode covered. His work in the 1930’s was beyond anything that scientists at that time were able to believe. He discovered that stars would appear to flair up to as bright as their galaxy, before fading out. He was the first person to figure out that this is what happens when a massive star dies. When massive stars die, they explode …show more content…

The dying star would shrink, it would be so densely made up of neutrons, hence the name: neutron stars. It was only after 35 years that he made this discovery, that other scientists soon began discovering their own supernovas. Fritz Zwicky discovered more than just supernovas, he also discovered that the gravity of the galaxy warps the fabric of space. This is able to distort the light, and magnify other galaxies behind it. Like the supernovas, roughly 40 years after Zwicky predicted this phenomenon, scientist began discovering this in space. Finally, the last thing that Zwicky discovered that I found to be most interesting, was “dark matter”. While studying the clusters of galaxies, Zwicky noticed that they seemed to be moving much faster than he thought they should, so fast that they should be moving apart from each other. Zwicky developed the thought that something else had to be holding the galaxies together, that this matter had to be at least 50 times the weight of the stars themselves. This idea was dismissed, much like his other ideas. Like a lot of earlier scientists, Zwicky discovered ideas that would be years ahead of what current scientists believed, it was only

Get Access