Basics of the universe

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Basics of the Universe
by
Prof A. Balasubramanian
Centre for Advanced Studies in Earth Science
University of Mysore
Mysore-6

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Introduction:
The vast empty space surrounding the planets and stars is called as the Universe. It consists of dark
matter, dark energy, stars and galaxies. Both cyclic and unpredictable processes are found to happen
in the universe. The major reason is that no one can control or change the particular occurrences of
the heavenly bodies that are happening in nature. These occurrences can’t be managed or artificially
created in any laboratory. Similarly, the processes that are happening in the universe are non-
repeatable. During these processes, many factors like temperature, pressure, etc are found to be
extremely high. Maintaining such high temperature conditions in the laboratories may be very risky.
The only way to understand the universe is through the electromagnetic radiations coming from
them. But, this is one of the most interesting subject in the world.
Astronomy and Cosmology:
Cosmology is the study of nature and origin of the Universe. The scientific aspects of composition,
motion, and other related facts of the universe are studied under a multidisciplinay subject called
Astronomy. It is not an experimental science but an observational science. Astronomy is one of the
oldest sciences having practical importance. It may take generations to complete the census of space.
About 100 billion galaxies with equal number of stars. Families of planets, satellites, asteroids and
planetoids, all of them exist in a massive space.
Constellations:
The first thing one need to know is that constellations are not real. They are totally imaginary things
that poets, farmers and astronomers have made up over the past 6,000 years. The constellations help
by breaking up the sky into more manageable bits. At an early stage, the stars were divided up into
constellations, each of which was given a name. Constellations are a group of stars forming a
recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a
mythological figure.
The oldest zodiacal constellations were traced by Babylonians. They divided them into 12 units. It is
due this the twelve months were born. The Chinese and the Egyptians drew the maps of the sky with
named constellations. The Greek did later which got survived. The Indians have also analyzed the
position of celestial bodies and their impacts on earth. Significant contributions were also made by
several ancient scholars.
Hipparchus, one of the greatest astronomers of classical period of Nicaea in 130 BC compiled the Star
catalogues. It was used by Ptolemy of Alexandria for listing 48 constellations. He named them using
mythological characters. Ptolemy in 141 A.D really developed the model of the Universe. The early
men regarded the Sun and Moon as Gods. Ancient people identified the close relationship between
the earth, the Sun and the seasons.
The Greek were the first people to identify three things:
i) There are seven wanderers in the space called planets
ii) There exist systematic movements of these bodies and
iii) The Universe contain many stars.
The first Greek Philosopher was Thales who did extensive works during 624 BC.
Very significant ideas were promoted by many ancient philosophers.
1. Aristotle of 384-322 B.C said that the earth is spherical in shape.
2. Aristarchus of 312-230 B.C speculated that the Universe is Sun-centered.
3. Eratosthenes of 276-194 B.C found that the size of the Earth has some variations.
The following scientists who studied the earth in space were considered as the “founders of the
modern astronomy”.

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1. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543).
2. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) Compiled the star catalogue-during pre-telescopic time.
3. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Planets more around the Sun in Orbits which are not
circular but elliptical.
4. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).
5. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727).
Their findings formed the basis for all present day astronomical and astrophysical studies and
applications.
Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish astronomer established three things:
i) The earth is a planet of Solar System.
ii) The Sun is at the centre of the Solar System
iii) There are other planets like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbiting with
in the same system.
J. Kepler was the first to identify that the path of each planet around the Sun is not circular and is
elliptical. Galileo Galilei, the greatest Italian scientist supported the Sun-centred theory of Solar
System. His contributions were related to
i) Behavior of moving objects.
ii) The weight of an object does not affect its rate of fall.
iii) Air resistance has a role to play for light object.
Galileo, by using his telescope, made many discoveries like
1. Four satellites of Jupiter.
2. Planets are circular disc like bodies.
3. Venus, has phases like moon.
4. Moon's surface has mountains, craters and plains.
5. The Sun has both hot high temperature and dark low temperature spots.
Sir Isaac Newton the greatest genius of that time (1643-1727) was the first to explain why the
planets move around the Sun. He proved the idea of Galileo that no force was needed to keep an
object in motion. Newton’s first Law of motion was an outcome of this time. The force of gravity and
the Law of universal gravitation were postulated by Sir Isaac Newton at his age of 23. It states that
“Every body in the Universe attracts every other body with a force that is directly proportional to
their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.” This signifies
that,
(i) the gravitational force decreases with distance.
(ii) The greater the mass of the object, greater is the gravitational force
(iii) The mass does not change unlike the weight.
It was a thought provoking time during which the theory was formulated about the origin of the
Universe called Big Bang Theory (BBT). According to the Big Bang Theory, the Universe came into
existence due to a huge explosion called “Big-Bang” occurred between 10 and 20 billion years ago.
A very hot dense fireball of expanding cooling gas probably began to condense into localized clumps
called Proto galaxies which due to further cooling released galaxies, stars and planets, many of them
co-exist under the influence of gravity.
Content of the Universe:
Initially, astronomers thought that the universe was composed entirely of ordinary atoms, or
"baryonic matter". During the recently years, more evidences obtained by global scientific bodies
suggests that most of the ingredients making up the universe are in some forms which we cannot see.
It shows that atoms only make up 4.6 percent of the universe. Of the remainder, 23 percent is made
up of dark matter. This dark matter is composed of one or more species of subatomic particles that
interact very weakly with ordinary matter. Almost 72 percent of the Universe is made of dark energy.
This is the driving element which is accelerating the unpredictable distribution and expansion of the

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universe. According to NASA, hydrogen makes up about 75 percent, while helium makes up about
25 percent, with heavier elements making up only a tiny fraction of the universe's chemical content.
Structure of the Universe:
Scientists thought in the earliest periods, that the universe has no structure and the matter and energy
are distributed nearly uniformly throughout. But later studies by NASA confirmed that
the gravitational pull of small fluctuations in the density of matter gave rise to the vast web-like
structure of stars and emptiness in the universe. The Dense regions pulled in more and more matter
through gravity is responsible for the forming stars, galaxies and larger structures known as clusters,
super clusters, filaments and walls. This is also responsible for the formation of "great walls" of
thousands of galaxies. These are reaching more than a billion light years in length. Due to this
reason, we call the universe as vast and dark. The less dense regions did not grow, evolving into an
area of seemingly empty space called as voids.
Expanding Universe:
In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was not static but was
expanding. This finding revealed that the universe was apparently born in a Big Bang. In 1998,
the Hubble Space Telescope's observations of very distant supernovae revealed that a long time ago,
the universe was expanding more slowly than it is today. In other words, the expansion of the universe
was not slowing due to gravity, but instead inexplicably was accelerating. The name for the unknown
force driving this accelerating expansion was called as dark energy.
The universe was born with the Big Bang which was an unimaginably hot, dense mass. When the
universe was just 10-34
of a second in age. It has experienced an incredible burst of expansion known
as inflation, in which the space itself got expanded faster than the speed of light. During this period,
the universe doubled in its size at least 90 times, going from subatomic-sized mass to a golf-ball-
sized mass almost instantaneously. According to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Agency of
the USA), this inflation and growth of the universe were continued but at a slower rate. As the space
expanded, the universe cooled and the matter was formed. One second after the Big Bang, the
universe was filled with neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons, photons and neutrinos.
First Three Minutes of The Universe:
During the first three minutes of the universe, the light elements were born during a process known as
Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Temperatures cooled from 100 nonillion (1032
) Kelvin to 1 billion (109
)
Kelvin, and protons and neutrons collided each other and made deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen.
Most of the deuterium then combined together to form helium, and trace amounts of lithium were
also generated. According to France's National Center of Space Research(CNES), for the first
380,000 years or so, the universe was essentially too hot for light to shine.
Era of Recombination:
The heat of creation smashed atoms together with enough force to break them up into a dense plasma,
an opaque soup of protons, neutrons and electrons that scattered light like fog all around. This was
called as the Era of recombination. Roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the matter got cooled
down well enough to form more atoms resulting in a transparent, electrically neutral gas as observed
by the NASA. This set the initial flash of light created during the Big Bang, which is detectable
today as cosmic microwave background radiation. It was found that after this situation, the universe
was found to be plunged into a state of darkness, since no stars or any other bright objects had formed
yet.

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The epoch of Reionization:
About 400 million years after the Big Bang, the universe began to emerge from the cosmic darkness.
During this time, clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the first stars and galaxies. At this time, the
energetic ultraviolet light ionized and destroyed most of the neutral hydrogen. This episode lasted for
more than a half-billion years period. This is called as the epoch of reionization.
The dark energy began:
NASA also found that the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the
universe pulled on itself via gravity, about 5 or 6 billion years after the Big Bang. There was a
mysterious force now called dark energy began speeding up the expansion of the universe once again,
a phenomenon that is being continued even today. A little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our
solar system was born.
The Age of the Universe:
The universe is currently estimated at roughly 13.8 billion years old, + / - 130 million years.
In comparison, the solar system is only about 4.6 billion years old. This estimate came from
measuring the composition of matter and energy density in the universe. This allowed researchers to
compute how fast the universe expanded in the past. With that knowledge, they could turn the clock
back and extrapolate when the Big Bang happened. The time between then and now is the age of the
universe.
The Shape of the Universe:
The shape of the universe whether finite or infinite is yet to be understood. It depends on the struggle
between the rate of its expansion and the pull of gravity. The strength of the pull in question depends
in part on the density of the matter in the universe. If the density of the universe exceeds a specific
critical value, then the universe is "closed" and "positive curved" like the surface of a sphere.
According to NASA, the universe is not infinite but has no end, just as the area on the surface of a
sphere. The universe will eventually stop expanding and start collapsing in on itself, the so-called
"Big Crunch." If the density of the universe is less than this critical density, then the geometry of
space is "open" and "negatively curved" like the surface of a saddle. If so, the universe has no bounds,
and will expand forever. If the density of the universe exactly equals the critical density, then the
geometry of the universe is "flat" with zero curvature like a sheet of paper. It is possible that the
universe has a more complicated shape than a curved surface.
Helium in the early Universe:
A team lead by the European astronomer Peter Jakobsen investigated the nature of the gaseous matter
that fills the vast volume of intergalactic space. By observing the ultraviolet light from a distant
quasar, which would otherwise have been absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere, they found that the
signatures of helium in the early Universe.
This was an important piece of supporting evidence for the Big Bang theory. It also confirmed
scientists’ expectation that, in the very early Universe, matter was not locked up in stars and galaxies,
but was nearly / completely ionised (the atoms were stripped of their electrons). This was an
important step forward is the field of cosmology. This investigation of helium in the early Universe
is one of many ways that Hubble has used distant quasars as lighthouses. As light from the quasars
passes through the intervening intergalactic matter, the light signal is changed in such a way as to
reveal the composition of the gas. The results have filled in important pieces of the puzzle of the total
composition of the Universe now and in the past.

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Composition of the Universe:
According to the latest observational evidence, ordinary matter, including stars, planets, dust and gas,
only make up a tiny fraction of the universe (5%). The rest is the elusive dark matter (~25%) and dark
energy(~70%).
Dark energy is a mysterious (and as yet hypothetical) form of energy which is spread out uniformly
throughout space (and time). It has anti-gravitational properties. It is one of the possible explanations
for the current accelerating rate of expansion of the universe.
Dark matter is the matter not visible to us because it emits no radiation that we can observe, but it is
detectable gravitationally.
Hydrogen & helium gas: Hydrogen and Helium are the most abundant element in the universe. This
element is found in great abundance in stars and gas giant planets.
Star: A ball of mostly hydrogen and helium gas that shines extremely bright. Our Sun is a star.
Neutrino: A small particle that has no charge and is thought to have very little mass. Neutrinos are
created in energetic collisions between nuclear particles. The universe is filled with them but they
rarely collide with anything. The distribution pattern is as follows:
Details Percent
Dark energy 70%
Dark matter 25%
Hydrogen & helium gas 4%
Stars 0.5%
Neutrinos 0.3%
Heavy elements 0.03%
Abundance of elements in the Universe are shown in this table.
Ten most common elements in the Milky Way Galaxy estimated spectroscopically
Z Element Mass fraction in parts per million
1 Hydrogen 739,000
2 Helium 240,000
8 Oxygen 10,400
6 Carbon 4,600
10 Neon 1,340
26 Iron 1,090
7 Nitrogen 960
14 Silicon 650
12 Magnesium 580
16 Sulfur 440
The elements – that is, ordinary (baryonic) matter made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, are only a
small part of the content of the Universe. Cosmological observations suggest that only 4.6% of the
universe's energy (including the mass contributed by energy, E = mc² ↔ m = E / c²) comprises the

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visible baryonic matter that constitutes stars, planets, and living beings. The rest is made up of dark
energy (68%) and dark matter (27%). Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the
Universe; helium is second. However, after this, the rank of abundance does not continue to
correspond to the atomic number; oxygen has abundance rank 3, but atomic number 8. All others are
substantially less common.
The Dark Matter:
Today astronomers believe that around one quarter of the mass-energy of the Universe consists
of dark matter. This is a substance quite different from the normal matter that makes up atoms and the
familiar world around us. Hubble has played an important part in work intended to establish
the amount of dark matter in the Universe and to determine where it is and how it behaves. Dark
matter only interacts with gravity, which means it neither reflects, emits or obstructs light (or indeed
any other type of electromagnetic radiation). Because of this, it cannot be observed directly. In 2007
an international team of astronomers used Hubble to create the first three-dimensional map of
the large-scale distribution of dark matter in the Universe. It was constructed by measuring the shapes
of half a million galaxies observed by Hubble.
The Dark energy:
More intriguing still than dark matter is dark energy. Hubble studies of the expansion rate of the
Universe have found that the expansion is actually speeding up. Astronomers have explained this
using the theory of dark energy, that pushes the Universe apart ever faster, against the pull of gravity.
As Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2
tells us, energy and mass are interchangeable. Studies of the
rate of expansion of the cosmos suggests that dark energy is by far the largest part of the Universe’s
mass-energy content, far outweighing both normal matter and dark matter: it seems that dark energy
makes almost 70% of the known Universe.
Other clustered objects in the Universe:
There are several clustered objects concentrated in the Universe as Galaxies, Nebulae, Stars, Black
holes, and Novae.
The Galaxies:
A Galaxy is a huge mass of stars, nebulae and other interstellar objects co-existing as star families
under the gravitational attraction of a giant single star. A Galaxy is a giant family of millions of stars.
The Scientific observations say that there may be as many as 100 billion galaxies existing in the
Universe, a fraction of it is alone known to human knowledge. There are different kinds of Galaxies
as
i) Spiral Galaxies
ii) Elliptical Galaxies
iii) Irregular Galaxies
The story of telescopic astronomy began in 1609. The first astronomical observations were made by
Thomas Harriott, Galileo and Marius. It was Thomas Harriott has compiled a map of the moon which
formed the foundation to Galileo’s contributions. Hans Lippershey of Holland made the first
instrument which helped Galileo to invent the refracting telescopes. The year 1609 has shown
spectacular discoveries on Moon, Jupiter, Venus and Sun. In 1663, reflecting telescope was invented
by J. Gregory, to overcome the problems of rainbow colors in the Prisms used for refracting
telescopes.
Throughout 18th
century telescopes of various sizes were built. Uranus was identified using the
telescope made by William Herschel in 1781. During the 19th
Century both spectroscopy and
photography were taken as separate schools of studies. Scientists of Astronomy and optics were

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emerging further. Concentration on spectroscopy made remarkable findings on Bohr’s Atomic
Theory in the first part of 20th
Century. The first basic understanding of the Electromagnetic spectrum
came only after the invention of astronomical spectroscopes. The world’s greatest scientific
observations and mathematical analyses started growing after this period.
Tremendous inventions and discoveries on temperature, light, sound, radio waves, atomic structure,
telescope; Radar astronomy and infra-red spectra were made during the early part of 20th
century.
Cosmic Radiation, Cosmic Rays
The following are the kinds of explanations given to cosmic radiation:
(a) High-speed particles that reach the Earth from outside the Solar System. Heavier cosmic ray
particles - such as those sought in x-ray astronomy - are ordinarily filtered out by the Earth's upper
atmosphere.
(b)Subatomic particles, primarily protons, that speed through space and strike the earth. The fact that
they are massive, combined with their high velocities, means that they pack considerable energy -
from 108
to more than 1022
electron volts.
(c) High-energy charged particles (about 85% protons, 14% -particles, 1% electrons, << 1% heavy
nuclei) which stream at relativistic velocities (mean energy ~ 2 GeV) down to Earth from space. The
Sun ejects low-energy (107
- 1010
eV) cosmic rays during Solar flares (those of lower energy than this
are unobservable from Earth because of Solar system magnetic fields). Those of intermediate energy
(1010
- 1016
eV) have an isotropic distribution, and are apparently produced in the Galaxy.
(d) The light elements Li, Be, and B have a higher abundance ratio in cosmic rays than in the Solar
System.
(e) High-energy particles of extraterrestrial origin which can be detected in observations made above
the Earth's atmosphere. If the particles are of very high energy, they can give rise to air-showers when
they penetrate into the atmosphere; these showers can be detected at ground level. The cosmic ray
particles are mostly protons, electrons and helium nuclei with a few per cent of heavy elements, and
are present throughout the disc of our Galaxy.
(f) Protons and some nuclei that are ejected from stars, especially supernova explosions, move
throughout all space. These "cosmic rays" impinge on the earth from all directions. They normally
collide with nuclei of atoms in the atmosphere, producing more "secondary" particles, mainly
electrons, muons, pions, etc.
Dwarf
A dwarf is a small, faint galaxy, exemplified locally by such systems as Ursa Minor, Draco, Sculptor,
Sextans, Carina, Fornax, Leo II, and Leo I, and the Andromeda dwarfs orbiting M31. These are
Luminosity Class V stars, essentially defining the Main Sequence, that are currently supported by the
fusion of hydrogen into helium in their cores.
Dwarf Galaxy
It is a galaxy at the faint end of the general lumisosity function and generally exhibiting low surface
brightness.

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Elliptical Galaxy
It is a galaxy that looks round or elliptical. One example is M87, in the constellation Virgo. Elliptical
galaxy is a galaxy without spiral arms and with an ellipsoidal shape. Ellipticals have little interstellar
matter and no blue giants - the only giants are red, and they give ellipticals a slightly redder color than
spirals. The most massive galaxies known (about 1013 M ) as well as some of the least massive
known, are ellipticals.
Seyfert Galaxy
Seyfert Galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy first discovered by Karl Seyfert in the 1940s. The central
region of a Seyfert galaxy is distinguished by powerful radiation, much of it focused into narrow
frequencies. These are one of a small class of galaxies (many of which are spirals) of very high
luminosity and very blue continuum radiation with small, intensely bright nuclei whose spectra show
strong, broad, high-excitation emission lines probably caused by discrete clouds moving at velocities
that are higher than the escape velocity.
Spiral Galaxy
Spiral Galaxy is a galaxy with a prominent nuclear bulge and luminous spiral arms of gas, dust, and
young stars that wind out from the nucleus. Masses span the range from 1010 to 1012 M .
Spiral Nebula
Spiral Nebula is a spiral galaxy - not really a nebula at all (although many do appear nebulous).
Interstellar Dust
These are dust particles in the space between the stars. These are responsible for the dark patches of
obscuration seen on astronomical photographs. The particles are composed of common heavy
elements such as carbon and silicon but there is no agreement about the exact composition of the dust
grains. Typically, the particles have size about 1 µm but there must be a wide range of particle sizes
present to explain the interstellar extinction curve. The dust plays a key role in giant molecular clouds
in protecting the fragile molecules from intense interstellar ionising and dissociating radiation. The
energy absorbed by the grains is emitted in the far-infrared waveband, and this form of dust emission
is one of the most important energy loss mechanisms for regions of star formation. The particles are
polarized, needle-shaped grains. Interstellar dust affects the entire spectrum, and leads to dimming
and reddening of starlight.
Nova
Nova is a star that brightens suddenly and to an unprecedented degree, creating the impression that a
new star has appeared where none was before. Hence the name, from nova for "new". All known
common novae are found in close binary systems with one component a cool red giant and the other a
hot, less massive object which is the seat of the instability. A star that undergoes an explosion
during which its brightness increases by up to ten magnitudes.
Planetary Nebula
Planetary Nebula is a bubble of gas surrounding a hot, dying star. The star is so hot that it makes the
planetary nebula glow, which allows astronomers to see it. The star was once the core of a red giant,
which ejected its outer atmosphere and created the planetary. A planetary nebula has nothing to do
with a planet, but through a small telescope, it looks like a planet's disk, hence the misleading name.
The planetary nebula stage lasts for less than 50,000 years. During the core contraction that terminates

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the red-giant stage, the helium-burning shell is ejected at a velocity so high that it becomes separated
from the core.
Protogalaxy
Protogalaxy is a galaxy in the process of formation. None are observed nearby, indicating that all or
most galaxies formed long ago. A galaxy during the early phase, before it has developed its present
shape and mix of stars.
Pulsar
A Pulsar is a fast-spinning neutron star that emits radiation toward Earth every-time it rotates.
Neutron stars that spin rapidly and have strong magnetic fields, which produce electromagnetic
radiation. All pulsars are characterized by the general properties of dispersion, periodicity, and short
duty cycle. Pulsars are believed to be rotating, magnetic neutron stars which are the end products of
supernovae.
Black Hole
A Black Hole is a region of space-time which cannot be seen by distant observers because light is
trapped by a strong gravitational field. The boundary of this region is called an event horizon because
it separates events (i.e. those in the hole) that cannot be seen from events outside the hole, which can.
Black holes might form, for example, from the gravitational collapse of a massive star. When the star
shrinks inside an event horizon, it will collapse without known limit, leaving the surrounding space
empty, Thus the designation `hole'. Spherical black holes (without electric charge) are known as
Schwarzschild black holes. Rotating holes are non-spherical: they are known as Kerr black holes.
A Black hole is an object that is maximally gravitationally collapsed, and from which not even light
can escape. An object with such a strong gravitational field that even light cannot escape. Matter can
fall into a black hole, but according to classical physics no matter or energy can leave it. It is a mass
that is sufficiently compact that not even light can escape its intense gravity. Thus it appears black
from the outside.
Light year
The light-year is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances. It is equivalent to the
distance that light travels in one year, which is 9.4607 × 1012
km (nearly 6 million million miles). As
defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in
vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days). Because it includes the word "year", the term light-year is
sometimes misinterpreted as a unit of time.
The light-year unit appeared a few years after the first successful measurement of the distance to a star
other than the Sun, by Friedrich Bessel in 1838. The light-year unit appeared, however, in 1851 in a
German popular astronomical article by Otto Ule. The light-year is most often used when expressing
distances to stars and other distances on a galactic scale. The abbreviations used for light years and
multiples of light years are
 "ly" for one light year
 "kly" for a kilolight-year (1,000 light years)
 "Mly" for a megalight-year (1,000,000 light years)
 "Gly" for a gigalight-year (1,000,000,000 light years)

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Speed of light
The Speed of light is c = 299 792 458 m s−1
Light moves at a velocity of approximately 300,000 kilometers (km) each second. So in one year, it
can travel about 10 trillion km. More precisely, one light-year is equal to 9,500,000,000,000
kilometers. In our solar system, we tend to describe distances in terms of the Astronomical Unit
(AU). The AU is defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. It is approximately
150 million km (93 million miles). Mercury can be said to be about 1/3 of an AU from the Sun and
Pluto averages about 40 AU from the Sun. The AU, however, is not big enough of a unit when we
start talking about distances to objects outside our solar system.
For distances to other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy (or even further), astronomers use units of the
light-year or the parsec . The light-year we have already defined. The parsec is equal to 3.3 light-
years. Using the light-year, we can say that :
Astronomical unit
The term astronomical unit refers to the approximate distance from the Sun to the Earth which is
equal to 150,000,000 kilometers. In our solar system, we tend to describe distances in terms of the
Astronomical Unit (AU). The AU is defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. It
is approximately 150 million km (93 million miles). Mercury can be said to be about 1/3 of an AU
from the Sun and Pluto averages about 40 AU from the Sun. The AU, however, is not big enough of a
unit when we start talking about distances to objects outside our solar system.
The Crab supernova remnant is about 4,000 light-years away.
The Milky Way Galaxy is about 150,000 light-years across.
The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.3 million light-years away.
Distance Information
NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) gives the following method. Proxima
Centauri, the closest star to our own, is still 40,208,000,000,000 km away. (Or about 268,770 AU.)
When we talk about the distances to the stars, we no longer use the AU, or Astronomical Unit;
commonly, the light year is used. A light year is the distance light travels in one year - it is equal to
9.461 x 1012 km. Alpha Centauri A & B are roughly 4.35 light years away from us. Proxima Centauri
is slightly closer at 4.25 light years. One of the most accurate methods astronomers use to measure
distances to stars is called parallax. If you hold your finger in front of your face and close one eye and
look with the other, then switch eyes, you'll see your finger seem to "shift " with respect to more
distant objects behind it. This is because your eyes are separated from each other by a few inches - so
each eye sees the finger in front of you from a slightly different angle. The amount your finger seems
to shift is called its "parallax".
Astronomers can measure parallax by measuring the position of a nearby star very carefully with
respect to more distant stars behind it, then measuring those positions again six months later when the
Earth is on the opposite side of its orbit. If the star is close enough to us, a measurable parallax will be
seen.
The Cosmic Calendar
The Cosmic Calendar is a scale in which the 13.7 billion year lifetime of the universe is mapped onto
a single year. This image helps to put cosmology, evolution, and written history in context. At this
scale the Big Bang took place on January 1 at midnight, and the current time is mapped to December
31 at midnight. At this scale, there are 434 years per second, 1.57 million years per hour, and 37.7
million years per day. The concept was popularized by Carl Sagan in his book The Dragons of Eden

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and on his television series Cosmos as a way to conceptualize the vast amounts of time in the history
of the universe.
The 13.7 billion year lifetime of the universe was pictorially mapped onto a single year. At this scale
the Big Bang takes place on January 1 at midnight, the current time is December 31 at midnight, and
each second is 434 years. The scale was popularized by Carl Sagan in his book The Dragons of Eden.
Cosmic Evolution
The following includes Cosmological time and the start of Geological
Time (Chaotian and Hadean).
Date / time bya Event
1 Jan 13.7 Big Bang, as seen through cosmic background radiation
11 May 8.8 Milky Way Galaxy formed
1 Sep 4.57 Sun formed (planets and Earth's moon soon thereafter)
16 Sep 4.0 Oldest rocks known on Earth
Evolution of life
Date / time bya Event
21 Sep 3.8 first life (prokaryotes)
12 Oct 3 photosynthesis
29 Oct 2.4 Oxygenation of atmosphere
8 Nov 2 complex cells (eukaryotes)
5 Dec 1 first multicellular life
14 Dec 0.67 simple animals
14 Dec 0.55 arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids)
18 Dec 0.5 fish and proto-amphibians
20 Dec 0.45 land plants
21 Dec 0.4 insects and seeds
22 Dec 0.36 amphibians
23 Dec 0.3 reptiles
26 Dec 0.2 mammals
27 Dec 0.15 birds
28 Dec 0.13 flowers
30 Dec 0.065 K-T mass extinction, non-avian dinosaurs die out
Human evolution
The following continues with Geological Time, which then becomes Quaternary Time.
Date / time mya Event
30 Dec 65 Primates
31 Dec, 06:05 15 Apes
31 Dec, 14:24 15 hominids
31 Dec, 22:24 2.5 primitive humans and stone tools
31 Dec, 23:44 0.4 Domestication of fire
31 Dec, 23:52 0.2 Anatomically modern humans
31 Dec, 23:55 0.11 Beginning of most recent glacial period

13
31 Dec, 23:58 0.035 sculpture and painting
31 Dec, 23:59:32 0.012 Agriculture
The purpose of Cosmic Calendar
To give us a better idea of the time scale involved in human evolution, it is interesting to compare the
numbers involved with something a little more familiar. Here, the history of the universe has been
scaled down to one year, That is, one month is equivalent to one billion year, one day to 30 million
years, one hour to 1.2 million year and one minute to 20 000 years.
Importance of studying the universe:
Human beings possess an intrinsic need to explore the world. Through exploration, people have
discovered new continents, found treatment methods to cure diseases, advanced in technology,
communication and innumerable aspects. Studying the origins of the Universe and exploring it helps
us build our civilization. Exploring how our civilization came into existence has evolved our ability
of thinking and understanding our surrounding and also the universe in a better way. Our curiosity to
get the answer to every query in relation to the origin and existence of universe has helped us to
discover and build better technology that we so ungratefully enjoy in all walks of life. Humans have
managed to advance in every field of technology, medicines, energy and telecommunication.
The ideas of Space Travel, Rockets, and artificial Satellites got emerged with outstanding
contributions. The first sets of Liquid-propellant rockets were launched in 1926 and 1949. Probing
the planets really started after the launch of Sputnik-I in 1957 and Lunik-1 in 1959 by the Russians.
The first manned space flight was achieved on 12th
April 1961, while using Vostok-1, by reaching 203
miles in one hour and 48 minutes. Alan Shepard became the first American in Space. Apollo-II was
the first successful landing of man on the moon in 1969.
During this time, two planets, Venus and Mars were concentrated, for various studies. The nearest
was Venus. Artificial satellites with sophisticated and sterilized probes were used to explore all the
planets and satellites. The Moon is the only satellite of Earth and its closest associate. Moon has a
special position in the heart of every human being on earth. Lunar charting, with photographic
systems and mapping of Moon Maria, Moonquakes and Moons Mountains, volcanic craters were the
efforts of those days, in History.

Basics of the universe

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Basics of the universe