The Mystery Of The Universe

There is perhaps no current problem of greater importance to astrophysics and cosmology than that of "dark matter". The controversy, as the name implies, is centered on the notion that there may exist an enormous amount of matter in the Universe that cannot be detected from the light that it emits. The evidence of dark matter is from the motions of astronomical objects, specifically stellar, galactic, and galaxy cluster/supercluster observations.

Einstein has brought many insights of life including the theory of the speed of light, which has led to the special theory of relativity that molded the way science, is today. “For example, various experiments, including the Michelson-Morley experiment, failed to measure the expected changes in the speed of light relative to the motion of the Earth. Due to this Einstein recognized that light has a measured speed that is independent of the speed of the observer” (“Albert Einstein.” 4). “Einstein showed in 1907 that mass is related to energy by the famous equation E=mc^2, which indicates the enormous amount of energy that is stored as mass, some of which is released in radioactivity and nuclear radiations, for example in the sun” (4).This enabled Einstein to be able to start and finish the general theory of relativity.

Hubble’s revolutionary work includes finding a constant relationship between galaxies’ distance and redshift. This helped prove that the universe is expanding. He also created a classification system that was created for galaxies. The system he created is called the Hubble Sequence, which many researchers have used for the past decades.

That the universe extended beyond the Milky Way was already widely surmised, and this discovery didn't change much. The revolution came when Hubble compared these newfound distances with the velocities of galaxies, which can be determined by measuring their color spectra. To his surprise, he found the two to be nearly linearly correlated, leading to the conclusion that every galaxy is receding from every other galaxy, and the universe as a whole is expanding.

The discovery of the heliocentric model

Shapley's contender, Heber Curtis, argued that the Milky Way was not the only galaxy in the universe. He believed that other, far more vast galaxies, existed as well. His counter-evidence was in the spiral nebulae found outside the Milky Way galaxy. However, his evidence was not solid enough to back his claims, which was based on the assumption that the way the nebulae were shaped made it impossible to see around them, or beyond them.

When it comes to theories and law’s concerning the movement of stellar bodies and why the universe is moving the way it is and how it came to be, data is continuously being added and revised. It is through this constant revising of theories and establishing of laws that core ideas are proven, with modern day scientists expanding knowledge for the rest of us. One of the earliest pioneers of spatial theories was the Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, who used the theories of those who came before and he learned from to paint a better picture of the way the universe was set. True to form, he dealt with accusations of heresy and resistance to his ideas from others during his life, which today are held as being before his time.

In this paper I will explain how astronomers determine the composition, temperature, speed, and rotation rate of distant objects using various methods. I will explain the properties of stars. I will also summarize the complete lifecycle of the Sun and determine where the Sun is currently in its lifecycle.

Beyond the Galaxy: How Humanity Looked Beyond Our Milky Way and Discovered the Entire Universe, written by astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, is an introductory textbook for the purpose of educating the layman about the matters of the universe. Because of this, the book covers a wide range of topics, from The Big Bang Theory, to the development of theories about the universe throughout the 20th century, to matter, antimatter, and dark, and even to the hypothesized end of the universe. Because about of a third of the book concerned dark matter, Siegel’s views on dark matter will be the main focus of this essay. Siegel begins with commenting on the discovery of and the development of theories concerning dark matter. Dark matter was first hypothesized as a solution to the discrepancy between the amount of mass in the universe determined through starlight, and the amount of mass in the universe determined through gravitation.

Before the Shapley-Curtis Debate most people were under the impression that the sun was the center of the galaxy, and the universe. Most people couldn’t grasp the idea that there was a bigger world in space beyond our planet, the sun and our moon. While we saw stars in the night sky, the idea that our universe was as vast and complex as it is seemed unreasonable. In 1920, Harlow Shapley showed just how vast the Milky Way was. However Shapley did not believe that there was anything more to our universe than our galaxy. He believed that because it was so big that nothing else could possibly be out there. His opponent, Heber Curtis, argued that the Milky Way galaxy was not as big as Shapley said, but that he believed that there was more to the universe than just our galaxy.

There have been many theories concerning what the universe looks like, how it became this way, and where it is going. The most popular theory that people hold today is that the universe began when all the matter ever present in the universe was contained in a tiny speck and that spec exploded. This is known as the Big Bang. This theory has developed a great deal since it was first conceptualized and continues to evolve today. Many different scientists have had a hand in this.

She is most notable for providing a great deal of compelling evidence, alongside Dr. Kent Ford, that proved Fritz Zwicky’s Theory of the existence of Dark Matter.2 Zwicky stated that individual galaxies within the Coma Cluster were moving so fast that if they were only held by the gravity of its visible mass that it would escape. Since he found no evidence of the cluster falling apart he concluded that there must be something else holding it together that was nearly 10 times that of visible matter, he called this Dark matter.2 While working with Dr. Ford, they began analyzing the light coming from stars in spiral galaxies. They used what is called the “Doppler effect” which states the wavelength shift is proportional to the speed of the light source relative to the observer. This uses the wavelength of light in how it is approaching or moving away from the observer. When a light source moves away from you it presents a red color and when it comes toward you it presents a blue light. After measuring several stars in different parts

This model, known as the nebular hypothesis, was first developed in the 18th century by Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant, and Pierre-Simon Laplace. Its next development has interwoven a variety of scientific disciplines including astronomy, physics, geology, and planetary science. Since the dawn of the

This observation means that it has taken every galaxy the same amount of time to move from a starting position to its current position. This observation is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who discovered this in 1929. Edwin Hubble’s evidence supports the expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted. Third, if the universe was insanely hot as the Big Bang suggests, scientists should be able to find some of this heat left over. In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin Cosmic Microwave Background radiation which infuses the observable universe. This is thought to be the remnant that scientists were looking for. Finally, the discovery of great amounts of Helium and Hydrogen lead to support the Big Bang Theory. (LaRocco)

Once microwave radiation was discovered, studies improved on the Milky Way Galaxy. Its Doppler Shift can be used to map the motion of gas in it. Also, with radio telescopes, hydrogen gas can now be traced. When the Hubble Space Telescope was introduced in 1990, that made exploring space so much easier and more efficient. That’s how we discovered so much about our universe- including galaxies!