Galaxy clusters

In the early 1900s, Henrietta Leavitt was studying Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (the small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way) and found a relationship between their period and luminosity. This meant that, simply by measuring the period of a more distant Cepheid, astronomers could immediately determine its luminosity – and hence, its distance. How We Use Cepheids Astronomers use Cepheid stars to measure distance. First, the period of a distant Cepheid is measured. The period is the length

Triangulum's official name of M33 would suggest at first that Charles Messier, who created the Messier catalog, was the one who discovered the galaxy. Messier was cataloging a list of deep-sky objects that were not comets in order to make searching for comets easier. M33 was noted on Aug. 25, 1764. However, the European Southern Observatory adds that the discovery could have been made by Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna sometime before 1654, when his book De systemate orbis cometici

The Big Bang Theory 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

and dense state, from which it expanded and cooled slowly coalescing into stars and galaxies we have today. As the big bang was taking place only the lightest of elements would be able to form (hydrogen and helium) seeing that due to such a tremendous extent of heat the first elements would have to form under the condition that they are not neutral atoms or atomic nuclei. Roughly 14 billion years ago the first galaxies started to form, soon after

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our solar system. Its name “ Milky” was derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky whose individual stars cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, which means it spiral out from the middle. The first and most obvious thing to talk about is how it was formed. It began as an oversized mass left behind after the big bang. The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened

The light that the Sun provides, also helps to light up different objects in the night sky, even if their billions of miles away. The Earth is located in the Milky Way, which is a part of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. The Virgo Galaxy Cluster is in turn apart of the Virgo Supercluster which is just a small amount of the visible universe. At the time of publication, Plait mentions that visible universe is “90 billion light years and expands every day…due to dark energy

Cosmology is the study of the universe, everything from the largest galaxies to the smallest atom. It attempts to answer the question, “How does the universe work?”, by looking at everything in the universe and working to understand it. Cosmology has always been studied, however in the last 20 years, technology has given scientists new information and allowed for an increasing knowledge of the structure and history of the universe with the ultimate goal of finding a theory that can explain everything

It's about four million times the mass of the Sun. It's surrounded by a cluster of young stars, some of which plunge to within a few billion miles of the black hole. And although it's quiet today, a century ago it gorged on a clump of matter that passed too close, creating a pyrotechnic display that lit up the Milky Way's heart

As stated in the article “The Dark universe debate”, measuring the atomic build up of stars and planets in galaxies was not great enough to hold galaxies together, so something scientists couldn’t detect must contribute to mass and gravitational pull. Dark energy is the compelling energy that pushes the universe to expand at faster and faster rates (Grim). “Measurements of the relationship

been enchanted by the stars and their endless number. The mathematical meaning of infinity was attributed to ancient Greek philosopher Archimedes. After Galileo invented the telescope which allowed him to discern innumerable number of stars in the galaxy, astronomers had acquired a powerful tool to investigate celestial phenomena and objects. Since then, many scientists have tried to create a model of the universe that could be used to explain its nature and calculate its characteristics. The emergence