presentation of universe

Origins of the universe, explained

The most popular theory of our universe's origin centers on a cosmic cataclysm unmatched in all of history—the big bang.

The best-supported theory of our universe's origin centers on an event known as the big bang. This theory was born of the observation that other galaxies are moving away from our own at great speed in all directions, as if they had all been propelled by an ancient explosive force.

A Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître first suggested the big bang theory in the 1920s, when he theorized that the universe began from a single primordial atom. The idea received major boosts from Edwin Hubble's observations that galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, as well as from the 1960s discovery of cosmic microwave radiation—interpreted as echoes of the big bang—by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson.

Further work has helped clarify the big bang's tempo. Here’s the theory: In the first 10^-43 seconds of its existence, the universe was very compact, less than a million billion billionth the size of a single atom. It's thought that at such an incomprehensibly dense, energetic state, the four fundamental forces—gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces—were forged into a single force, but our current theories haven't yet figured out how a single, unified force would work. To pull this off, we'd need to know how gravity works on the subatomic scale, but we currently don't.

It's also thought that the extremely close quarters allowed the universe's very first particles to mix, mingle, and settle into roughly the same temperature. Then, in an unimaginably small fraction of a second, all that matter and energy expanded outward more or less evenly, with tiny variations provided by fluctuations on the quantum scale. That model of breakneck expansion, called inflation, may explain why the universe has such an even temperature and distribution of matter.

After inflation, the universe continued to expand but at a much slower rate. It's still unclear what exactly powered inflation.

Aftermath of cosmic inflation

As time passed and matter cooled, more diverse kinds of particles began to form, and they eventually condensed into the stars and galaxies of our present universe.

For Hungry Minds

By the time the universe was a billionth of a second old, the universe had cooled down enough for the four fundamental forces to separate from one another. The universe's fundamental particles also formed. It was still so hot, though, that these particles hadn't yet assembled into many of the subatomic particles we have today, such as the proton. As the universe kept expanding, this piping-hot primordial soup—called the quark-gluon plasma—continued to cool. Some particle colliders, such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider , are powerful enough to re-create the quark-gluon plasma.

Radiation in the early universe was so intense that colliding photons could form pairs of particles made of matter and antimatter, which is like regular matter in every way except with the opposite electrical charge. It's thought that the early universe contained equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But as the universe cooled, photons no longer packed enough punch to make matter-antimatter pairs. So like an extreme game of musical chairs, many particles of matter and antimatter paired off and annihilated one another.

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Somehow, some excess matter survived—and it's now the stuff that people, planets, and galaxies are made of. Our existence is a clear sign that the laws of nature treat matter and antimatter slightly differently. Researchers have experimentally observed this rule imbalance, called CP violation , in action. Physicists are still trying to figure out exactly how matter won out in the early universe.

Building atoms

Within the universe's first second, it was cool enough for the remaining matter to coalesce into protons and neutrons, the familiar particles that make up atoms' nuclei. And after the first three minutes, the protons and neutrons had assembled into hydrogen and helium nuclei. By mass, hydrogen was 75 percent of the early universe's matter, and helium was 25 percent. The abundance of helium is a key prediction of big bang theory, and it's been confirmed by scientific observations.

Despite having atomic nuclei, the young universe was still too hot for electrons to settle in around them to form stable atoms. The universe's matter remained an electrically charged fog that was so dense, light had a hard time bouncing its way through. It would take another 380,000 years or so for the universe to cool down enough for neutral atoms to form—a pivotal moment called recombination. The cooler universe made it transparent for the first time, which let the photons rattling around within it finally zip through unimpeded.

We still see this primordial afterglow today as cosmic microwave background radiation , which is found throughout the universe. The radiation is similar to that used to transmit TV signals via antennae. But it is the oldest radiation known and may hold many secrets about the universe's earliest moments.

From the first stars to today

There wasn't a single star in the universe until about 180 million years after the big bang. It took that long for gravity to gather clouds of hydrogen and forge them into stars. Many physicists think that vast clouds of dark matter , a still-unknown material that outweighs visible matter by more than five to one, provided a gravitational scaffold for the first galaxies and stars.

Once the universe's first stars ignited , the light they unleashed packed enough punch to once again strip electrons from neutral atoms, a key chapter of the universe called reionization. In February 2018, an Australian team announced that they may have detected signs of this “cosmic dawn.” By 400 million years after the big bang , the first galaxies were born. In the billions of years since, stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies have formed and re-formed—eventually yielding our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and our cosmic home, the solar system.

Even now the universe is expanding , and to astronomers' surprise, the pace of expansion is accelerating. It's thought that this acceleration is driven by a force that repels gravity called dark energy . We still don't know what dark energy is, but it’s thought that it makes up 68 percent of the universe's total matter and energy. Dark matter makes up another 27 percent. In essence, all the matter you've ever seen—from your first love to the stars overhead—makes up less than five percent of the universe.

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What is the universe?

It encompasses everything that ever was and ever will be.

• How old is it?
• How was it made?
• Observable universe
• Universe infinite?
• What is it made of?
• How will it end?

Additional resources

Bibliography.

The universe is literally everything, the sum of all existence. It includes all matter, like stars and galaxies. The universe also includes all radiation and all other forms of energy. No matter where or when you exist, you are a part of the universe, as is everything you experience. There is nothing outside the universe, because anything that exists is automatically included in the definition of the universe.

How old is the universe, and is it expanding?

Our best understanding of the history of the universe comes from the Big Bang theory . Observations of distant galaxies reveal that all galaxies are, on average, moving away from every other galaxy. Astronomers interpret this motion to mean that the universe itself is expanding; on the very largest scales, the distances between galaxies grow with time. This means that in the past, the universe was smaller, hotter and denser than it is today.

Einstein 's theory of general relativity allows cosmologists to connect the contents of the universe to its expansion history and, from there, calculate its age. According to current estimates, based on a wide variety of observations — such as distant supernovas , the cosmic microwave background and the abundance of light elements — the universe is approximately 13.787 billion years old. In its earliest moments, the entire universe was compressed into an infinitely tiny point known as the singularity . From that singularity, space expanded, giving rise to the universe that we see today, according to NASA .

How was the universe created?

Scientists do not know what came before the Big Bang. However, they do know that the singularity is not real; instead, it's an artifact of general relativity that occurs when the equations break down and lose their ability to describe a physical situation. A true explanation for the singularity must lie in a theory of quantum gravity, which is a physical theory of strong gravity at extremely tiny scales. Physicists do not currently have such a theory, but they do have several candidates, like string theory and loop quantum gravity.

Scientists don't even know if the question " What came before the Big Bang ?" makes sense. Our understanding of the passage of time comes from the same theory of relativity that breaks down when describing the early universe. It could very well be that our conceptions of "before" and "after" are inadequate to describe what happens at such extreme scales, according to astrophysicist Ethan Siegel .

Ultimately, the reason the universe exists is perhaps the greatest of all philosophical questions.

What is the observable universe?

Astronomers currently do not know how large the universe is , but there is a limit to what we can see. This volume is known as the observable universe.

Because the universe has a finite age, and because the propagation of light is limited to a maximum speed, only a certain portion of the universe has been illuminated from our vantage point. The observable universe is a sphere roughly 42 billion light-years across. (For scale, the Milky Way is only 100,000 light-years across, and the nearest star to the sun is less than 4 light-years away.)

The galaxies that astronomers observe at the very edge of this sphere released their light up to 13 billion years ago. However, the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light, which is not an issue, because special relativity dictates that the restriction that objects can't travel faster than the speed of light applies only measurements made nearby an observer, not to objects in the  distant universe.

If the universe were static, then as time progressed, we would be able to observe even more distant galaxies as their light eventually reached us. However, the expansion of the universe is carrying away those more distant galaxies faster than the light from them can travel back to us, and we will never be able to observe them, PBS' Nova reported .

Is the universe infinite?

Cosmologists think that beyond the edge of the observable universe lies… more universe: more stars, more galaxies, more planets, more everything. Because it's unobservable, however, astronomers do not know how large the entire universe is. It's possible that the universe is truly infinite, with no boundary in space at all, according to NASA .

However, one size estimate comes from the theory of inflation, an event many cosmologists think occurred during the earliest moments of the Big Bang. During inflation, the universe rapidly swelled to many orders of magnitude larger in a tiny fraction of a second. Inflation theory puts the minimum size of the universe at around 10^62 times wider in diameter than the observable universe.

What is the universe made of?

Most of the contents of the universe are of a form currently unknown to modern physics. Around 68% of the total energy in the universe is composed of dark energy , a hypothetical form of energy that appears to reside in the vacuum of space-time itself. However, physicists do not know where this energy originates from or why it has the strength it does, according to Harvard University's Universe Forum .

About 27% of the matter and energy of the universe is composed of dark matter , which is believed to be an invisible form of matter that does not interact with light. While the vast majority of physicists think dark matter is some new kind of fundamental particle (or particles), they have not yet directly detected it.

The remaining 5% of the universe consists of normal, familiar matter, like stars, planets and vast gas clouds.

How will the universe end?

To understand how the universe will end, we must first accurately measure its contents. Since the main component of the universe is dark energy, that will dictate its future evolution. The main effect of dark energy is that it is accelerating the expansion of the universe. So the universe is not only getting larger every day but getting larger faster and faster every day. Assuming that dark energy will remain unchanged (which is a big assumption, because we currently do not understand the nature of dark energy), then this accelerated expansion will eventually drive almost every galaxy out of our observable sphere, astrophysicist Kevin Pimbblet wrote in The Conversation .

Hundreds of billions of years from now, almost every galaxy will become invisible to us. Eventually, the Milky Way will run out of fresh gas to create new stars. Trillions of years from now, the last stars will extinguish, leaving behind a thin soup of fundamental particles that will slowly cool to a temperature of absolute zero.

• To sink your teeth into cosmology, check out " Your Place in the Universe " (Prometheus, 2018), written by article author and astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter.
• Explore the ultimate fate of the universe in this great video from PBS Space Time.
• See how calculating the size of the universe is no small feat in this episode of the "Astronomy Cast" podcast.

Brennan, P. (2020, December 3). What is the universe? NASA. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/what-is-an-exoplanet/what-is-the-universe/  

Halpern, P. (2012, October 10). How large is the observable universe? PBS NOVA. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-large-is-the-observable-universe/  

NASA. (2010, April 16). What is the inflation theory? https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_cosmo_infl.html#:~:text=The%20Inflation%20Theory%20proposes%20a,relatively%20gradually%20throughout%20its%20history  

Pimbblet, K. (2015, September 3). The fate of the universe: heat death, Big Rip or cosmic consciousness? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-fate-of-the-universe-heat-death-big-rip-or-cosmic-consciousness-46157  

Siegel, E. (2022, March 4). Ask Ethan: Did our universe really arise from nothing? Big Think. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/universe-nothing/

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Paul M. Sutter is a research professor in astrophysics at  SUNY Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute in New York City. He regularly appears on TV and podcasts, including  "Ask a Spaceman." He is the author of two books, "Your Place in the Universe" and "How to Die in Space," and is a regular contributor to Space.com, Live Science, and more. Paul received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy. 

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Welcome to the Universe

Discover the universe: Learn about the history of the cosmos, what it's made of, and so much more.

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Origins of the Universe 101

How old is the universe, and how did it begin? Throughout history, countless myths and scientific theories have tried to explain the universe's origins. The most widely accepted explanation is the big bang theory. Learn about the explosion that started it all and how the universe grew from the size of an atom to encompass everything in existence today.

Earth Science, Astronomy

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Introduction to the universe.

The Solar System is a collection of planets, moons, asteroids and comets and other rocky objects orbiting the Sun. The Solar System is believed to extend out to at least 150 000 million km from the Sun, although the planets are all found within about 6000 million km.

Our Solar System is thought to have formed 4.6 x 10 9 years ago from a vast, rotating cloud of gas and dust known as the solar nebula. As the solar nebula rotated, its gravity began to attract gas and dust towards the centre, eventually forming our Sun.

The Sun is the powerhouse of the Solar System. Without it, life on Earth simply would not exist. Despite burning its hydrogen fuel for the best part of 5 billion years, the Sun is still only half way through its life cycle.

The study of the Sun, its environment and how the material it discharges interacts with other worlds in the Solar System is of great interest to us all. ESA has a number of mission that analyse various aspects of this solar emission.

Solar Mission

Planets and moons.

The formation of the Sun had a dramatic effect on the temperatures across the solar nebula, introducing a temperature range that stretched from about 2000K near the Sun to less than 50K at the outer regions. The heat in the inner Solar System only allowed materials with high condensation temperatures to remain solid. These particles eventually gathered to form the four terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

A similar process formed the outer planets of the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Yet, they are different because icy materials such as frozen water, carbon dioxide and methane were also available. Consequently, these outer Jovian planets are much larger than the terrestrial planets. In addition these giant planets were able to enhance their atmospheres by capturing gas atoms moving more slowly due to the colder temperatures.

Each planet travels around the Sun in an elliptical orbit that is held in place by the gravitational attraction between the Sun and the planet. Some of the planets, including, of course, Earth, have moons orbiting them. Mars has just two moons in orbit around it, while Jupiter has 63 moons known to be orbiting it. Kepler's three laws of planetary motion define the motion of the planets around the Sun, and the movement of moons around their parent planet.

Table 1.1: Distance and Orbital Parameters for the Planets

Table 1.2: Observational Characteristics of the Planets

Asteroids and Comets

There was some material left over from the solar nebula once the Sun and the planets had formed. Some of this debris remains in our Solar System in the form of asteroids and comets.

Asteroids, which are sometimes called minor planets, are rocky bodies mostly found in the planetary region between Mars and Jupiter. This region is known as the asteroid belt, and it stretches from about 250 million km to about 600 million km from the Sun. The largest known asteroid is Ceres with a diameter of roughly 1000 km. Only around a dozen are more than 250 km across. Over 100 000 asteroids larger than one kilometre in diameter are known to exist, with more being discovered all the time.

We often hear of asteroids on the news, when near-Earth asteroids pass close enough to our planet to cause concern of a potential impact either now, or in the future. These near-Earth objects have highly elliptical orbits, which bring them into the inner Solar System, crossing the orbit of Mars and occasionally coming close to Earth.

Comets are often referred to as 'dirty snowballs', as they are made up of ice and dust. The ones we can see travel around the Sun in highly elliptical orbits taking from a few years to thousands of years to return to the inner Solar System. Typically comets are just a few kilometres across, which makes them very difficult to spot for most of their orbit. As they approach the Sun, however, solar radiation vaporizes the gases in the comet and the characteristic comet 'tail' is formed. The tail of a comet consists of two parts: a whiter part made of dust, which always points away from the Sun, and a blue part consisting of ionised gas. Comets are mainly found in two regions of the Solar System: the Kuiper belt, a region that extends from around the orbit of Pluto to about 500 AU from the Sun, and the Oort Cloud (from the Kuiper Belt to about 50 000 AU from the Sun).

Occasionally small rocks or dust particles enter the Earth's atmosphere. The dust particles and small rocks burn up in the atmosphere leaving behind brief trails in the sky witnessed as meteors. It is estimated that more than 200 million kg of meteoritic material is swept up by the Earth each year, with around 10% reaching the ground.

Much of this material orbits the Sun in distinct streams, usually as debris from different comets. At various times throughout the year the Earth crosses these streams and for a few nights an observers can witness a meteor shower.

Table 1.3: Dates of Primary Meteor Showers

Sometimes larger fragments survive their passage through the atmosphere and impact the surface, where they become known as meteorites. Most impacting fragments are tiny and cause little or no damage. Historically, however, there have been several major impacts, which may be responsible for changes in climate and the mass extinction of species.

Figure 1.1: Barringer Meteor Crater (credit: NASA)

Bodies of the Universe

It is hard to comprehend the enormity of our Universe. Our Sun is only one of billions of stars in our galaxy, known as the Milky Way. But beyond the Milky Way, there are billions of other galaxies, too. Collectively, all these galaxies, along with the vast amount of space found in between them, are called the Universe.

Extragalactic

Other components.

Dark Energy

Stellar Clusters & Constellations

We are familiar with the constellations that we see regularly in the night sky - a distinctive pattern of stars. However, although these stars may form shapes that are recognisable to us here on Earth, they do not usually have any real link to each other, as they are often at different distances from the Earth, and are in fact very far away from each other.

Figure 1.2:  View of Orion and Actual Distance to Stars

Stellar clusters, on the other hand, are systems of stars that are held together by the gravity of their members. Eventually these clusters slowly evaporate. After a few billion years, the relatively loose collections of stars known as open clusters will no longer be held together by gravity and the cluster will stop existing. More highly compacted stellar clusters, known as globular clusters, which are typically about 15 billion years old, have not yet evaporated. Due to their relatively well-known distances, and the similarities that tend to exist among their stars, stellar clusters play an important role in astrophysics. Some of the nearest stellar clusters are visible with the naked eye. The most visible open clusters are the Pleiades and Hyades, both to be found in the constellation of Taurus.

Table 1.4: List of the brightest Open and Globular Clusters

Relative Distances To Objects

A light year is the distance light travels through empty space in the course of one year.

1 light year = 9.461 x 10 12 km = 5.878 x 10 12 miles

In order to comprehend the enormity of space, astronomers use a variety of methods to measure the distances between stars and between galaxies.

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is around 120 000 light years across and the Sun occupies a position roughly 28 000 light years from the centre. Within the Milky Way, the nearest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is about 4.4 light years away. But most of our nearest stars are between 100 and 1000 light years away from Earth.

From any given location on Earth it is possible to view around 7000 stars with the naked eye and countless more with a telescope. In all, our galaxy contains over 1 billion stars.

The distance to stars in our galaxy is obtained using a technique called parallax. By identifying certain stellar properties it is then possible to calibrate a distance scale out to our galactic neighbours.

The nearest galactic objects are the Magellanic Clouds. The Large Magellanic Cloud is 170 000 light years away, while the Small Magellanic Cloud is at a distance of 210 000 light years. The next nearest galaxy is Andromeda (M31 in the Messier catalogue), at a distance of 2.3 million light years.

Galaxies are usually part of a larger group of galaxies. The group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda, plus several other smaller companion galaxies, is known as the Local Group. The other galaxies in the Local Group are between 80 000 to three million light years away from the Milky Way.

The next nearest rich cluster of galaxies, the Virgo cluster, is around 60 million light years away. It is believed that the Milky Way-Andromeda cluster is part of an even bigger supercluster along with Virgo-Coma cluster.

Stellar Motions

Diurnal effects.

During the course of one night, the constellations appear to move across the sky. Stars rise above the eastern horizon and set below the western horizon. The stars appear to rotate around one point in the sky. This optical effect occurs because the Earth itself is rotating about axis.

View the sky changing over 24 hours

Annual Effects

If you observe the night sky regularly over the course of one year, you will notice that the constellations appear to change their position slightly from one night to the next at any given time, only returning to their original positions once a year. This is due to the difference between a calendar day (24 hours) and a sidereal day (23 hours 56 minutes), or the time the Earth actually takes to spin once on its axis.

View the sky changing over 1 year

Annual Parallax

Annual Parallax is the difference between the position of a star observed from the Earth and by a hypothetical observer at the Sun. The effect is a tiny shift in the positions of relatively close stars against the background of distant stars. If the position of a nearby star is plotted during the course of a year it sweeps out an ellipse, called the parallactic ellipse, across the sky. This change in position is very small and requires high precision instruments to make the observation.

This effect, which can be observed for example with a spinning top, is caused by the gravitational pull from the Sun and Moon on the Earth's equatorial bulge. (Note - if the Earth were a perfect sphere precession would not occur.)

Precession causes the Earth's rotation axis to sweep out a circle on the sky with an angular radius of 23° 27' (this value corresponds to the axial tilt of the Earth). The circle is traced out at the rate of 1° every 71.6 years, taking 25 800 years to complete a full circle.

This means that the celestial pole, which currently points at the star Polaris, changes with time. Careful examination of the 'View of the sky changing over 24 hours' animation (above) shows the Pole Star also leaving a star trail since it is ¾ of a degree away from the celestial pole.

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• Teacher Notes 1

The history of the universe: Big Bang to now in 10 easy steps

Take a trip through time to discover the history of the universe.

Step 1: How it all started

Step 2: the universe's first growth spurt, step 3: too hot to shine, step 4: let there be light, step 5: emerging from the cosmic dark ages, step 6: more stars and more galaxies, step 7: birth of our solar system, step 8: the invisible stuff in the universe, step 9: the expanding and accelerating universe, step 10: we still need to know more, additional resources, bibliography.

The history of the universe and how it evolved is broadly accepted as the Big Bang model, which states that the universe began as an incredibly hot, dense point roughly 13.7 billion years ago. So, how did the universe go from being fractions of an inch (a few millimeters) across to what it is today? Here is a breakdown of the Big Bang to now in 10 easy-to-understand steps.

The Big Bang was not an explosion in space, as the theory's name might suggest. Instead, it was the appearance of space everywhere in the universe, researchers have said. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe was born as a very hot, very dense, single point in space. Cosmologists are unsure what happened before this moment, but with sophisticated space missions, ground-based telescopes and complicated calculations, scientists have been working to paint a clearer picture of the early universe and its formation. A key part of this comes from observations of the cosmic microwave background , which contains the afterglow of light and radiation left over from the Big Bang. This relic of the Big Bang pervades the universe and is visible to microwave detectors, which allows scientists to piece together clues of the early universe. In 2001, NASA launched the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) mission to study the conditions as they existed in the early universe by measuring radiation from the cosmic microwave background. Among other discoveries, WMAP was able to determine the age of the universe — about 13.7 billion years old.

When the universe was very young — something like a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second (whew!) — it underwent an incredible growth spurt. During this burst of expansion, which is known as inflation, the universe grew exponentially and doubled in size at least 90 times.

"The universe was expanding, and as it expanded, it got cooler and less dense," David Spergel, a theoretical astrophysicist at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J., told SPACE.com. After inflation, the universe continued to grow, but at a slower rate. 

As space expanded, the universe cooled and matter formed.

Light chemical elements were created within the first three minutes of the universe's formation. As the universe expanded, temperatures cooled and protons and neutrons collided to make deuterium, which is an isotope of hydrogen. Much of this deuterium combined to make helium.

For the first 380,000 years after the Big Bang, however, the intense heat from the universe's creation made it essentially too hot for light to shine. Atoms crashed together with enough force to break up into a dense, opaque plasma of protons, neutrons and electrons that scattered light like fog.

About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, matter cooled enough for electrons to combine with nuclei to form neutral atoms. This phase is known as "recombination," and the absorption of free electrons caused the universe to become transparent. The light that was unleashed at this time is detectable today in the form of radiation from the cosmic microwave background. Yet, the era of recombination was followed by a period of darkness before stars and other bright objects were formed.

Roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang, the universe began to come out of its dark ages. This period in the universe's evolution is called the age of re-ionization. This dynamic phase was thought to have lasted more than a half-billion years, but based on new observations, scientists think re-ionization may have occurred more rapidly than previously thought. During this time, clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the very first stars and galaxies. The emitted ultraviolet light from these energetic events cleared out and destroyed most of the surrounding neutral hydrogen gas. The process of re-ionization, plus the clearing of foggy hydrogen gas, caused the universe to become transparent to ultraviolet light for the first time.

Astronomers comb the universe looking for the most far-flung and oldest galaxies to help them understand the properties of the early universe. Similarly, by studying the cosmic microwave background, astronomers can work backwards to piece together the events that came before. Data from older missions like WMAP and the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), which launched in 1989, and missions still in operation, like the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in 1990, all help scientists try to solve the most enduring mysteries and answer the most debated questions in cosmology.

Our solar system is estimated to have been born a little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, making it about 4.6 billion years old. According to current estimates, the sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, and orbits roughly 25,000 light-years from the galactic core.

Many scientists think the sun and the rest of our solar system was formed from a giant, rotating cloud of gas and dust known as the solar nebula. As gravity caused the nebula to collapse, it spun faster and flattened into a disk. During this phase, most of the material was pulled toward the center to form the sun.

In the 1960s and 1970s, astronomers began thinking that there might be more mass in the universe than what is visible. Vera Rubin , an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, observed the speeds of stars at various locations in galaxies. Basic Newtonian physics implies that stars on the outskirts of a galaxy would orbit more slowly than stars at the center, but Rubin found no difference in the velocities of stars farther out. In fact, she found that all stars in a galaxy seem to circle the center at more or less the same speed. This mysterious and invisible mass became known as dark matter . Dark matter is inferred because of the gravitational pull it exerts on regular matter. One hypothesis states the mysterious stuff could be formed by exotic particles that don't interact with light or regular matter, which is why it has been so difficult to detect. 

In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble made a revolutionary discovery about the universe. Using a newly constructed telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles, Hubble observed that the universe is not static, but rather is expanding. Decades later, in 1998, the prolific space telescope named after the famous astronomer, the Hubble Space Telescope , studied very distant supernovas and found that, a long time ago, the universe was expanding more slowly than it is today. This discovery was surprising because it was long thought that the gravity of matter in the universe would slow its expansion, or even cause it to contract.

– How big is the universe?

– What is the coldest place in the universe?

– How many black holes are there in the universe?

– What color is the universe?

Dark energy is thought to be the strange force that is pulling the cosmos apart at ever-increasing speeds, but it remains undetected and shrouded in mystery. The existence of this elusive energy, which is thought to make up 80% of the universe, is one of the most hotly debated topics in cosmology.

While much has been discovered about the creation and evolution of the universe, there are enduring questions that remain unanswered. Dark matter and dark energy remain two of the biggest mysteries, but cosmologists continue to probe the universe in hopes of better understanding how it all began.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched in 2021, will continue the hunt for the elusive dark matter, as well as peering back to the beginning of time and the evolution of the universe using its infrared instruments.

For more information about the evolution of the universe check out, " The History of the Universe " by David H. Lyth or " A Brief History of Time " by Stephen Hawking. You can also keep up to date with the discoveries of JWST, visit NASA's dedicated webpage or the European Space Agency's dedicated webpage . 

Scientific American, " The Evolution of the Universe ", October 1994. 

Walter Perry, " Origin and Evolution of the Universe ", Journal of Modern Physics, Volume 12, November 2021.

Bharat Ratra and Michael S. Vogeley, " The Beginning and Evolution of the Universe ", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 120, March 2008, 

NASA, " Brief History of the Universe ", December 2006. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

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Scott is a staff writer for  How It Works  magazine and has previously written for other science and knowledge outlets, including BBC Wildlife magazine, World of Animals magazine,  Space.com  and  All About History magazine . Scott has a masters in science and environmental journalism and a bachelor's degree in conservation biology degree from the University of Lincoln in the U.K. During his academic and professional career, Scott has participated in several animal conservation projects, including English bird surveys, wolf monitoring in Germany and leopard tracking in South Africa. 

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60 Years and Counting

- mysteries of the universe -.

When NASA began 60 years ago, we had questions about the universe humans had been asking since we first looked up into the night sky. In the six decades since, NASA, along with its international partners and thousands of researchers, have expanded our knowledge of the Universe by using a full fleet of telescopes and satellites. From the early probes of the 1950s and 1960s to the great telescopes of the 1990s and 21st century, NASA scientists have been exploring the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang to the present.

Pillars of Creation, Eagle Nebula, a cloud of gas and dust created by an exploding star from which new stars and planets are forming. Image Credit: NASA/ ESA/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScl/AURA)

The Great Observatories

NASA astronomers use several kinds of telescopes in space and on the ground. Each observes targets like stars, planets, and galaxies, but captures different wavelengths of light using various techniques to add to our understanding of these cosmic phenomenon.

Image Credit: NASA

Since it was launched in 1990, Hubble has forever changed our idea of what the universe looks like. It does not travel to stars, planets or galaxies, but takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at about 17,000 mph.

Chandra X-ray Observatory

The Chandra X-ray Observatory allows scientists from around the world to obtain X-ray images of exotic environments to help understand the structure and evolution of the universe. X-rays are produced when matter is heated to millions of degrees. X-ray telescopes can also trace the hot gas from an exploding star or detect X-rays from matter swirling as close as 90 kilometers from the event horizon of a stellar black hole.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Spitzer Space Telescope

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, designed to detect primarily heat or infrared radiation, launched in 2003. Spitzer's highly sensitive instruments allow scientists to peer into cosmic regions that are hidden from optical telescopes, including dusty stellar nurseries, the centers of galaxies, and newly forming planetary systems. Spitzer's infrared eyes also allow astronomers to see cooler objects in space, like failed stars (brown dwarfs), exoplanets, giant molecular clouds, and organic molecules that may hold the secret to life on other planets.

Exciting Discoveries

Image of the infant universe 13.7 billion years created from WMAP data, showing differences in temperatures that became “seeds” for galaxies. Image Credit: NASA

The Age of the Universe

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite returned data that allowed astronomers to precisely assess the age of the universe to be 13.77 billion years old and to determine that atoms make up only 4.6 percent of the universe, with the remainder being dark matter and dark energy. Using telescopes like Hubble and Spitzer, scientists also now know how fast the universe is expanding.

These minute temperature variations (depicted here as varying shades of blue and purple) are linked to slight density variations in the early universe. These variations are believed to have given rise to the structures that populate the universe today: clusters of galaxies, as well as vast, empty regions. Image Credit: NASA

How the Universe Began and Evolved

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), launched in 1989, studied the radiation still left from the Big Bang to better understand how the universe formed. In 2006, John Mather of NASA and George Smoot of the University of California shared the Nobel Prize for Physics for confirming the Big Bang theory using COBE data.

Dark Matter

NASA telescopes have helped us better understand this mysterious, invisible matter that is five times the mass of regular matter. The first direct detection of dark matter was made in 2007 through observations of the Bullet Cluster of galaxies by the Chandra x-ray telescope.

Image Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/University of Colorado/J. Comerford et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI

Black Holes

Although we can’t “see” black holes, scientists have been able to study them by observing how they interact with the environment around them with telescopes like Swift, Chandra, and Hubble. In 2017, NASA's Swift telescope has mapped the death spiral of a star as it is consumed by a black hole. This year, astronomers using Chandra have discovered evidence for thousands of black holes located near the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Image Credit: Image Credit: NASA/ESA/G. Dubner (IAFE, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires) et al.; A. Loll et al.; T. Temim et al.; F. Seward et al.; VLA/NRAO/AUI/NSF; Chandra/CXC; Spitzer/JPL-Caltech; XMM-Newton/ESA; and Hubble/STScI

Crab Nebula

Image of the Crab Nebula, combining data from several telescopes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a bright supernova explosion seen by Chinese and other astronomers in the year 1054, is 6,500 light-years from Earth.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/A.V. Filippenko (University of California, Berkeley)/P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), et al.

A Bright Supernova

The explosion of a massive star blazes with the light of 200 million Suns in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/CXC/SSC/STScI

Spiral Galaxy M101

Spiral Galaxy M101 viewed from three different NASA telescopes and kinds of light: Spitzer (infrared), Hubble (visible light), and Chandra (X-ray).

A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems, held together by gravity. Some are spiral-shaped like our Milky Way Galaxy; others are smooth and oval shaped. NASA telescopes are helping us learn about how galaxies formed and evolved over time.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith (STScI)/HUDF Team

Thousands of Galaxies

Hubble Space Telescope picture showing thousands of galaxies. Even the tiny dots are entire galaxies.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/M. Mutchler (STScI)

NGC 4302 and NGC 4298

Spiral galaxy pair NGC 4302 and NGC 4298. Astronomers used the Hubble to take a portrait of a stunning pair of spiral galaxies. This starry pair offers a glimpse of what our Milky Way galaxy would look like to an outside observer.

Just 30 years ago, scientists didn’t know if there were planets orbiting other stars besides our own Sun. Now, scientists believe every star likely has at least one exoplanet. They come in a wide variety of sizes, from gas giants larger than Jupiter to small, rocky planets about as big as Earth or Mars. They can be hot enough to boil metal or locked in deep freeze. They can orbit their stars so tightly that a “year” lasts only a few days; they can even orbit two stars at once. Some exoplanets don’t orbit around a star, but wander through the galaxy in permanent darkness. NASA’s Kepler spacecraft and newly-launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite are helping us find more distant worlds

Image Credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech

Kepler-186f

Kepler-186f, the first rocky exoplanet to be found within the habitable zone—the region around the host star where the temperature is right for liquid water. This planet is also very close in size to Earth. Even though we may not find out what's going on at the surface of this planet anytime soon, it's a strong reminder of why new technologies are being developed that will enable scientists to get a closer look at distant worlds.

1 Pegasi b. This giant planet, which is about half the mass of Jupiter and orbits its star every four days, was the first confirmed exoplanet around a sun-like star, a discovery that launched a whole new field of exploration.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (artist concept)

Kepler-16b. This planet was Kepler's first discovery of a planet that orbits two stars—what is known as a circumbinary planet.

Artist's concept of TRAPPIST-1. Image Credit: NASA

Using Spitzer, scientists found the most number of Earth-sized planets found in the habitable zone of a single star, called TRAPPIST-1. This system of seven rocky worlds–all of them with the potential for water on their surface–is an exciting discovery in the search for life on other worlds. There is the possibility that future study of this unique planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life.

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Top 25 Space PowerPoint Templates to Know More About Universe!

Deepali Khatri

What is Space? Is it something that can be measured with a ruler? A very simple answer to this can be, Space means everything what’s between planets, moons, starts, etc. In simple words space is everything beyond the top of Earth’s atmosphere- the satellites, Moon, mars, Milky way, and much more.

To know more about space, the space astronomy, the galaxies, satellites, asteroids, planets and other things in the space it is not possible for every individual to go there and explore the galaxies and the universe. This is why we have created an equivalent tool that will aid you in exploring more about universe and its constituents.

These PowerPoint slides can not only be used for astronomical discoveries but can also be used by the social science teachers to acquaint the students with the movement of the planets, how they affect the weather, and the occurrence of days and nights. So, download these space PowerPoint templates for presentations requiring background of stars and Universe.

Space PowerPoint Templates:

Space Earth PowerPoint Background And Template-1

Get this Space Earth PowerPoint Template

Get this space earth PowerPoint template to share the new discoveries in space. Scientist can display how the Milky Way galaxy launches newly formed stars into the space. Talk about various planets in the universe, different galaxies, asteroids, meteors, etc. using this ready-made space earth PPT slide.

Universe Theme Showing Sunrise From Outer Space-2

Download this Universe Theme Showing Sunrise from Outer Space

Incorporate the above shown professionally designed PowerPoint template to talk about the universe and its stories. Unveil the mechanism of its working. Students can also prepare their physics assignments taking the advantage of this PowerPoint templates. Science teachers can include this PowerPoint slide to teach children about the universe, planets and Sun to clear their concepts.

Planets In Space Earth PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-3

Download this Planet in Space PowerPoint Template

Explore universe and the planets by employing this planet in space PowerPoint slide. This amazingly curated PowerPoint layout can be used in astrology seminars. Astronomers can also download this pre-developed PowerPoint slide. Not only this, teachers can make the students learn about Earth and various planets with this visually appealing PowerPoint slide.

Man Carrying Rocket Ship On Back-4

Grab this Man Carrying Rocket Ship on Back PowerPoint Slide Show

Talk about some interesting facts of rocket ship. Discuss about the most powerful rocket ever made. Mention the uses and benefits of rockets. Display how NASA uses rockets to launch people and things into the space. Jot down the names of the rockets like Delta II, Taurus, Atlas V that NASA uses. Let the students know about the fastest rocket on Earth which is Juno Space craft.

Rocket With Globe Space And Planets Icons Flat PowerPoint Design-5

Download this Rocket with Globe Space and Planet Icons PowerPoint Slide

Professionals working in the field of aerospace technology can employ this slide to demonstrate the concept related to their industry. Students studying aerospace engineering can use it to prepare their projects and assignments. The template gives you a lot of space to jot down your ideas and talk about rockets and various planets.

Launch Readiness Rocket Going Up In Space Shuttle-6

Grab this Launch Readiness Rocket PowerPoint Slide

This PPT slide is perfect to talk how does rocket ship fly. Mention all the stages related to rocket launch and share some important facts related to rocket ship. This amazing launch readiness PowerPoint slide can be used for preparing any presentation related to space or rocket. DRDO can use this slide to decide and plan about their next mission.

Space Planets Earth PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-7

Grab this Space Planets PowerPoint Slide Design

The above shown PowerPoint depicts a solar system. Science teachers can download this PowerPoint slide to guide students about the universe and planets in it. Discuss the big bang theory, galaxies and asteroids with the help of this creatively designed PowerPoint slide. Talk about the satellite each planet has. It can also be used by the astrologers for space astronomy.

Launch Readiness Showing Discovery In The Space Shuttle Launch-8

Click here to Get this Launch Readiness Showing Discovery PowerPoint Layout

Use this professionally designed Launch readiness PowerPoint template to showcase the devised strategies for a successful launch. One can also talk about the rockets and how they send satellite into the orbits. DRDO can explain its next mission by showcasing their plans regarding the launch of this predeveloped PowerPoint slide design.

Earth Globe PowerPoint Backgrounds And Templates-9

Grab this Earth Globe PowerPoint Slide Design

This slide is perfect for showcasing the facts about Earth. Let your viewers know how Earth looks form space. Share the changing view of Earth from space with this professionally designed Earth Globe PowerPoint Slide. Educators can explain the concept of social studies by writing the facts on this PPT slide and can make the students understand the concepts easily. It can serve as a great tool for the space related presentation also.

Space Satellite Icon PowerPoint Shapes-10

Download this Space Satellite Icon PPT Template

Explain the concepts related to satellites using this ready-made space satellite PowerPoint slide design. Make students understand how many types of satellites are there i.e. artificial and natural. Mention the name of the satellites of different planet by incorporating this readily available satellite icon PowerPoint layout.

Coloured Earth From Space Abstract PowerPoint Templates And PowerPoint Backgrounds-11

Click here to Download this Coloured Earth from Space PowerPoint Template

This slide can be used to showcase how Earth looks from space. Display the changing view of the planet earth and talk about some interesting facts of Earth and the other planets. It can be used for the presentations related to general knowledge and education. Incorporate this PowerPoint template for presentation on scientific topics as well.

Space Ship In Star Wars Image-12

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The above shown professionally designed PowerPoint template can be used to demonstrate space shuttle and advance technology of satellite. Engage your viewers in astrology and physics related topics. Customize the template as per your convenience and use it for space and technology programs.

Space Satellite On Moon Icon-13 

Get this Space Satellite on Moon Icon PowerPoint Template

You can use this PPT template to list down mission to the Moon. Mention the countries which have satellite on moon. Talk about Chandrayaan 2 and the strategies made during that mission. Display the plans made for the controversial satellites. For educational presentation requiring satellite background this PPT layout can be downloaded.

Alien Creature Travelling In Space Craft Icon-14

Download this Alien Creature Travelling PowerPoint Template

This PPT template can be used for kids in the TV shows and movies. Talk about aliens and their stories with this creatively designed Alien creature travelling in space PowerPoint template. Display the interesting facts and stories about aliens using this PowerPoint template.

Image Depicting American Astronaut Taking Space Challenges-15

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The above shown PowerPoint slide can be used to showcase the basic requirements. The examination that NASA astronauts must pass can also be depicted with the help of this professionally designed PowerPoint template. This template can be used in presentation related to general knowledge. Mention the name of the astronaut that was Yuri Gagarin who was the first person to fly in space. This will help in enhancing the knowledge of students.

Satellite Telecom Image-16

Download this Satellite Telecom Image PPT Graphic

The above shown creatively designed PowerPoint template can be used to impart some general knowledge to the viewers on satellite. State the number and the names of various satellite that each planet has. It can also be used to display the space studies and findings. Showcase the elements of satellite communication to give people a better understanding of the topic.

Universe Theme With Satellite Image Of Earth-17

Download this Universe Theme PPT Slide

State some interesting facts about universe and the planets in it. Talk about the satellite of each planet and showcase its working. Display how these satellites are controlled and how it receives signals from earth and re-transmit those signals. One can also present the working of satellite communication from space.

Satellite Icon With Clouds And Frequency-18

Click here to Grab this Satellite Icon with Clouds and Frequency PPT Slide

Display the affect of rain and clouds on satellite. The pre-designed template can also be used to present the influence of clouds and rain on the waveform signature from satellite. Display the space findings and the research done with the assistance of this ready-made Satellite icon PowerPoint template.

Space Satellite Icon With Four Text Holders-19

Download this Space Satellite Icon PPT Slide

Let your audience know about the number of satellites which are there in the space. Also, throw a light on the workings of the satellite in the space using this creative space satellite PowerPoint slide design. Mention the names of the countries which have satellite in the space. This PPT slide is a great tool for making presentation related to education or general knowledge.

Space Sunrise Science PowerPoint Templates-20

Download this Space Sunrise Science PowerPoint Template

The above shown PowerPoint slide will let you convey how sunrise look from space. Talk about the views of scientists on sunset and sunrise. Let your viewers know why astronauts who lived in space avoid looking at the sun because of the harmful aspect of sun rays. Talk about all the interesting facts of sunrise using this professionally designed PowerPoint template.

Space Satellite Icon With Two Planets-21

Download this Space Satellite Icon with Two Planets PowerPoint Slide Design

This PPT slide can be perfectly used to make the students understand the concept of satellites. Talk about the artificial and the natural satellite and educate students in a visually appealing way. The template is apt for presentation on the topic of general knowledge and can also be used by the educators of social studies and science to guide the children.

Universe Theme With Bright Star In Center-22

Incorporate this Professionally Designed Universe Theme PowerPoint Template

Talk about fascinating stories of Universe and how it was created. Let your viewers know about the creators of Universe. Explore universe and discuss about the big bang theory, galaxies, meteors and asteroids. The above shown creatively designed PPT template can be used for space astronomy as well.

Planets In Space Geographical PowerPoint Templates-23

Download this Planets in Space Geographical PPT Template

Here is a perfect PowerPoint template to showcase all the planets in the solar system and talk a little about each planet. This slide can be perfectly used for making the students understand entire solar system and for making the kids learn the names of the planets. Talk about the satellites each planet has and about some of the features of each planet taking the assistance of this ready-made PowerPoint slide.

Universe Theme With Galaxies In Different Colors-24

Download this Readymade Universe PowerPoint Slide

This PowerPoint template can be used to discuss every detail about the galaxy and its types, the number of galaxies, etc. Discuss about Milky way and let them know that this galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust and billions of stars using this amazing PowerPoint slide. Showcase the most famous galaxies in our universe using this PPT template.

Universe Theme With Earths Image From Moon Surface-25

Click here to Download this Professionally Designed PowerPoint Template

Get this Universe theme PPT template and showcase to the viewers how Earth is a satellite of Sun and Moon is a satellite for Earth. Let people know how Earth looks from the Moon’s surface. Mention a little about "earth rise" which is a picture of Earth and some of the Moon’s surface that was taken by one of the astronauts.

So, incorporate the above shown templates and prepare projects, assignments and educational presentations requiring background with stars and Milky way.

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Scale of the Universe

Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world.

Click on objects to learn more.

Use the scroll bar to zoom in and out.

Originally created by Cary Huang

Remastered by Dave Caruso , Ben Plate , and more.

The Universe

Year 10 The Universe - For additional resources visit: http://www.iheartscience.net Read less

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More related content, what's hot, what's hot ( 20 ), viewers also liked, viewers also liked ( 20 ), similar to the universe, similar to the universe ( 20 ), more from sarah jones, more from sarah jones ( 20 ), recently uploaded, recently uploaded ( 20 ).

• 1. Hubble Space Telescope The Universe Sarah Jones
• 2. Hubble Space Telescope
• 3. "It must be a strange world not being a scientist, going through life not knowing - or maybe not caring - about where the air came from, and where the stars at night came from, or how far they are from us. I want to know." Michio Kaku
• 4. Hubble Space Telescope
• 5. Hubble Space Telescope
• 6. Ancient astronomers believed the universe was made up of about 3000 stars, the moon and the sun and these objects revolved around the earth. We now know that the earth is not the centre of the universe and that the sun is only one of millions and millions of stars. www.kidsastronomy.com
• 7. Claudius Ptolemy’s earth-centered model of the universe mucholderthen.tumblr.com
• 8. Constellations Many stars that we can see form recognisable patterns. The stars in a constellation keep the same shape but may only appear on summer or winter nights due to the Earth’s revolution. http://s-wilson1013-dp.blogspot.com.au
• 9. commons.wikimedia.org
• 10. www.physics.unlv.edu
• 11. Star Distances The distances to the stars are enormous with vast spaces between them. Our sun is the closest star being 150 000 000 km away. The next closest star is 41 000 000 000 000 km away or 270 000 times the distance of the sun. www.nasa.gov
• 12. The distances to the stars are far too large to measure in kilometres. Instead we use the astronomical unit of distance called the light- year. This is the distance light travels in one year. Light travels at about 300 000 000 metres per second (3×108 m/s). So in one year light travels about 9 500 000 000 000 km.
• 13. • A parsec (pc) is another commonly used astronomical unit of length – it is equivalent of 3.26 light-years. • The parsec is based on the phenomenon known as parallax. www.atnf.csiro.au
• 14. When you look at the stars you are actually looking back in time. The closest star in the Southern Cross is 220 light years away. This means the light left this star 220 years ago (i.e. as the star was in 1788). Science World 10
• 15. Naming Stars The stars in the sky have been given names according to their brightness. The brightest star is called the alpha star (α-star), the second brightest the beta star (β-star), then gamma (γ- star), delta (δ-star) and so on. commons.wikimedia.org
• 16. In the Southern Cross, the brightest star is called the α-Crucis. The Pointers are located nearby and this constellation is known as Centaurus. The brighter of the 2 stars is known as α- Centauri (closest star to Earth apart from the Sun) and the second star is known as β-Centauri. en.wikipedia.org
• 17. Movement of Stars The stars appear to move across the sky. This movement is caused by the west to east rotation of the earth. Science World 10
• 18. Stars are made of …? Stars are gaseous objects in space that give off light and heat. Our sun is composed of: 80% H 19% He 1% trace elements en.wikipedia.org
• 19. The enormous size of a star creates huge gravitational forces which squeeze the atoms of the gases together and creates immense pressure and heat. At this temperature, electrons are stripped from the atoms, leaving positively charged nuclei which are in constant rapid motion.
• 20. NASA/SDO/GoddardSpaceFlightCenter
• 21. Plasma a state of matter, different from solids, liquids and gases, which exist in the extreme heat in the interior of stars (conducts electricity and generates a magnetic field). Nuclear Fusion is when H nuclei fuse together to form He and release large amounts of energy (occurs in the core of the sun).
• 22. Einstein proposed: In the fusion reaction in the sun, 655 million tons of H is converted to 650 million tons of He every second. The 5 million tons of H used up releases 4.5 x 1026 J/s. This is the same amount of energy that all power stations in Australia could produce in 7 billion years.
• 23. Structure of the Sun Science World 10
• 24. Light From Stars • Brightness and colour of a star are important in determining its size and life expectancy. • Astronomers refer to a stars brightness as its magnitude. • The colour of a star is due to its temperature.
• 25. Brightness and Colour of Stars scienceblogs.com
• 26. Apparent Magnitude • The brightness of a star when viewed from Earth. • As the brightness of a star decreases the apparent magnitude becomes more positive. i.e. Stars just visible with the naked eye have a magnitude of about 6. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, has a magnitude of – 1.4. astronomy.swin.edu.au
• 27. Apparent magnitude is not a measure of the star’s actual brightness because a very bright star could be so far away from earth that it appears dim. mrscreath.edublogs.org
• 28. Absolute Magnitude • Measures the actual brightness of a star by comparing the amount of light given off by that star if it was a set distance from earth. • The amount of light given off is determined by its size (amount of matter). www.skyandtelescope.com
• 29. Science World 10
• 30. Colour • Hottest stars (e.g. Rigel) – white to blue light • Coolest stars – red light • Very hot stars (Rigel) give off large amounts of UV (ultraviolet) light which our eyes cannot detect. Appears as blue. • Astronomers are able to calculate the surface temperature of stars by measuring the wavelength (λ) of light given off. en.wikipedia.org
• 31. Relationship – Brightness and Colour • If two stars are the same colour, they must have the same surface temperature. • If the absolute brightness is larger, then star is larger. • If a red and a blue star are the same size they will have the same brightness, but the blue star will radiate more energy/second because it is hotter.
• 32. Binary Stars • Two stars that revolve around each other. • There have been nearly 700 000 binaries observed by astronomers. • Two famous binaries in the Southern Hemisphere are Alpha-Centauri (brightest star of the Pointers) and Alpha-Crucis (star at the foot of the Cross). www.space.com
• 33. Star Life Cycles • Stars are born in clouds of gas (mainly hydrogen) and dust that occur throughout the universe. Occasionally one of these clouds collapses on itself, becoming hotter and denser as the gravitational force increases. This is the embryonic stage in the life of a star – Protostar. • Eventually the gas becomes hot enough to start nuclear fusion reactions and the star begins to grow.
• 34. Nebula – massive cloud of gas and dust. en.wikipedia.org
• 35. Supernova – a spectacular explosion which ends the life of a star. en.wikipedia.org
• 36. Birth and Death of Stars • The life cycle of a star depends entirely on its mass. • A protostar with a mass less than 0.1 of the mass of the sun will continue to shrink but will never get hot enough for nuclear reactions to begin. It will fade to form a small red star before turning cold and dying.
• 37. A star about the size of our sun initially glows very brightly. It then settles down to a long stable middle-life period of about 10 billion years. As the star ages and its hydrogen is used up, its surface temperature decreases. Finally, when little hydrogen remains, the stars core shrinks, the outer layers expand and cool and the star forms a red giant. kepler.nasa.gov
• 38. Gases in the outer regions then drift into space and the remaining gases collapse into a small, very dense object known as a white dwarf. These stars are very small. Eventually the white dwarf cools down and fades away. ircamera.as.arizona.edu
• 39. Stars 2-6 times the size of the sun have much shorter but spectacular lives. These stars only live for about 1 million years. The mass in large stars create enormous gravitational forces in the core of the star. The nuclear reactions use fuel very rapidly, creating very bright stars (blue). When the fuel runs out there is a tremendous outburst of energy – Supernova. The star’s matter is blown into space, leaving a nebula. When this explosion occurs the brightness of the star increases a billion times.
• 40. Science World 10
• 41. HR Diagram One of the most useful and powerful plots in astrophysics is the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H-R diagram). It originated in 1911 when the Danish astronomer, Ejnar Hertzsprung, plotted the absolute magnitude of stars against their colour (hence effective temperature).
• 42. en.wikipedia.org
• 43. Nebulas and Neutron Stars • A supernova occurs about once every 75 years in our galaxy. • Some nebulas emit their own light and glow like stars. They can glow pink, blue green or yellow depending on the type of gas in the cloud. E.g. Great Nebula of Orion. • Other nebulas do not glow and black out the light from the stars behind them. E.g. The Horsehead Nebula. This is a dark nebula which can be seen against the glow of stars in the background.
• 44. Horsehead Nebula en.wikipedia.org
• 45. A Neutron star is an incredibly dense star less than 20km in diameter formed during a supernova explosion. The remainder of the star’s core is pulled inwards by immense gravitational forces. They are so small that they do not glow very brightly but send out pulsating radio signals. They can be called pulsars. www.dailygalaxy.com
• 46. Black Holes • Invisible objects in space that emit X-rays and that are thought to form when the most massive stars explode. • After the supernova explosion the core collapses on itself, and unlike a neutron star, these massive stars (10 times size of sun) keep on collapsing. • The gravitational force that is created is so strong it will not even allow light to escape. www.nasa.gov
• 47. Galaxies • The Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. • It is estimated to contain between 200 and 400 billion star. news.nationalgeographic.com
• 48. Edwin Hubble Astronomer Edwin Hubble revolutionised the field of astrophysics. His research helped prove that the universe is expanding, and he created a classification system for galaxies that has been used for several decades. http://www.biography.com/people/edwin-hubble asd.gsfc.nasa.gov
• 49. Spiral Galaxy en.wikipedia.org
• 50. Barred Spiral Galaxy www.cosmotography.com
• 51. Elliptical Galaxy science.nationalgeographic.com
• 52. Irregular Galaxy abyss.uoregon.edu
• 53. en.wikipedia.org
• 54. Origin of the Universe • Cosmology is the study of the origin and structure of the universe. • Two models describing the origin of the universe: www.crystalinks.com
• 55. The Steady State Model • This model proposes that the universe has always existed. The universe is infinitely old, it has no birth date and will never end. The universe is endless in time and space. This model accounts for the fact that stars and galaxies die and re- form. • This model avoids the difficult question of how the universe was created. There are few supporters of this model because recent astronomical evidence does not fit it at all.
• 56. The Big Bang Model This model suggests that the universe began as a massive explosion; it is based on evidence that the universe is expanding. About 10 billion years ago all matter in the universe was contained in a hot, dense ball of radiation and sub-atomic particles. An explosion took place and the matter expanded. As it expanded it cooled and electrons, protons and neutrons formed. On further expansion and cooling, small gaseous atoms like hydrogen and helium formed, then larger ones. Where the exploded matter was denser, gravitational forces squeezed particles of matter together to from galaxies containing stars.
• 57. www.jpl.nasa.gov
• 58. Red Shift Astronomers have found that the wavelength of the light (measured with a spectrometer) coming from most stars has shifted towards the red end of the spectrum. This occurs when stars are moving rapidly away from earth. This is considered evidence that the universe is expanding.
• 59. http://en.wikipedia.org
• 60. Cosmic microwave background radiation
• 61. The Future of the Universe • What will happen to the expanding universe? There are two theories. www.nasa.gov
• 62. The universe will go on expanding forever. The universe will eventually die as the stars and galaxies are reduced to clouds of gas and dust. www.jpl.nasa.gov
• 63. The ‘Big Crunch’ suggests that the universe will expand to a certain point and then collapse back on itself in a reversal of the Big Bang. This will once again form a hot, dense ball of matter that will start a second Big Bang and a new universe will be born containing all the matter that was in the previous universe.

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https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/nist-physicists-once-obscure-work-now-helping-researchers-learn-about-origins

Taking Measure

Just a Standard Blog

NIST Physicist’s Once Obscure Work Is Now Helping Researchers Learn About the Origins of the Universe

When physicist John “Ben” Mates completed his doctoral thesis in 2011, he figured few people would read it. 

It’s not that Mates, who conducted his Ph.D. research at NIST while a graduate student at the University of Colorado, thought his work unimportant. 

Mates was just being realistic. Most scientists don’t bother to wade through doctoral dissertations, which can run more than 100 pages. Dissertations tend to focus on highly specialized topics. 

And for several years of his career at NIST, Mates was right.

He had devised a novel method to read out the signals from an array of exquisitely sensitive sensors that measure tiny changes in the intensity of thermal radiation (heat), including the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

Reading out data from the detectors, developed at NIST and known as transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers, had proved challenging. That’s because the bolometers can only operate at temperatures a fraction of a degree above  absolute zero , which is about minus 273 degrees Celsius or minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit. If too many wires link the ultracold detectors to room-temperature equipment, the sensors will heat up and stop functioning.

Mates’ dissertation described a way to minimize the number of these wires, enabling the sensors to maintain their chilly operating temperature. 

After completing his thesis, Mates pursued another research project at NIST. 

(Many) Bolometers Needed 

In late 2013, however, his NIST supervisor, Joel Ullom, asked him if he’d like to return to his original study. His dissertation, Ullom told Mates, had taken on added importance. 

Mates had previously demonstrated that signals from two of the TES bolometers could be read out using a single wire connected to a room-temperature device rather than using a separate wire for each sensor. 

Although he had designed the method to minimize the room-temperature connections for a much larger number of sensors, he had not actually shown it could work.

Now, that demonstration was urgently needed — and on a massive scale. 

Astronomers wanted to use not just two but thousands of the TES bolometers on a set of ground-based telescopes to examine the CMB with 10 times more sensitivity than ever before. Although researchers have studied the CMB for decades, the bolometers are able to capture details of the tiny temperature variations in the radiation that may put to the test the leading theory of how the universe was born.

With thousands of bolometers, however, it would be virtually impossible to attach a separate room-temperature wire to each one without heating the sensors beyond their operating temperature.

Over the next 10 years, Mates perfected his technique, showing how the signal from each TES — a change in a tiny current — could be converted to a unique frequency. Thousands of those frequencies, he showed, could be carried on a single room-temperature cable, dramatically reducing the flow of heat back to the detectors.

Using his method, known as microwave multiplexing, astronomers recently installed 67,080  bolometers on the  Simons Observatory , a suite of four telescopes in Chile devoted to studying the CMB. 

The NIST-designed sensors act like miniature thermometers and can discern tiny temperature variations — as small as ten-millionths of a degree — in the CMB over more than 40% of the sky. 

The minuscule hot and cold spots correspond to slight variations in the density of the universe in its infancy, 380,000 years after its violent birth. Studying those variations reveals how and where tiny clumps of matter, the seeds of the galaxies we see in the sky today, first formed in the cosmos.

The bolometers also record patterns of different polarizations in the CMB — wiggles in the electric field of the radiation. Those wiggles encode a wealth of information about the universe an instant after the Big Bang and could hold clues about its mysterious beginning.

Multiplexing Research Goes Mainstream 

Now Mates’ dissertation is a hot topic — required reading for many scientists interested in multiplexing. He’s gotten hundreds of requests for reprints and has traveled around the world, recently installing instrumentation at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex in Tokai. 

“It’s sort of freakish how it all worked out,” Mates said. “I never imagined the work would have such an impact.”

His thesis is so popular that Mates said he’s considering publishing an updated version of his manuscript.

In the future, Mates hopes to keep refining the technique and reducing the cost, so there can be many more projects over the next decade or longer. 

While he appreciates the attention his work is currently receiving, for Mates, the measurement problems were motivation to keep researching. 

“I think I also find most of the problems of developing and improving the system to be interesting on their own,” he said. 

Measuring the Cosmos 

Many NIST technologies have found homes among the stars. Learn more about how this research is helping to better understand our world on our Measuring the Cosmos site . 

About the author

Ron Cowen has been a science writer and editor at NIST since 2016. When not working at NIST, he’s a freelance writer specializing in physics and astronomy. In 2019, he authored his first book, a popular-level account of the 100-year struggle to understand the general theory of relativity, Gravity’s Century: From Einstein’s Eclipse to Images of Black Holes . Cowen has written for Scientific American , The New York Times , U.S. News & World Report , The Washington Post , National Geographic and the news sections of Science and Nature . He was also a staff reporter for 21 years at Science News magazine. Cowen has twice won several awards: the American Institute of Physics' excellence in science writing award, the American Astronomical Society's science writing award in solar physics and the Society's David Schramm science writing award for feature articles on high-energy astrophysics. He has a master's in physics from the University of Maryland.

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Intriguing story of the CMB radiation, though I missed any reference to the presumed dark matter scaffold on which galaxies were formed.

Hi, Dan. Thanks for your comment. Here's some additional information from the author:

Details in the structure of the cosmic microwave background reveal, indirectly, the composition of the universe, including the amount of dark matter. This video from Fermilab explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri2LIEjXhmE .

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The mysterious 'Great Attractor' pulling the Milky Way galaxy off course

Regina G. Barber

Rachel Carlson

Rebecca Ramirez

This illustration shows the Milky Way, our home galaxy. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

This illustration shows the Milky Way, our home galaxy.

No matter what you're doing right now – sitting, standing, walking – you're moving.

Specifically, you're moving at least four different ways.

First, Earth is spinning around on its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour right now, or about 1,600 kilometers per hour. This rotation is the reason we have days. Second, Earth and other planets in our solar system are orbiting the sun. Our planet does that at around 67,000 miles per hour, or about 108,000 kilometers per hour. That's why we have years. And third, you're moving because the sun and the rest of our solar system is orbiting the center of the Milky Way galaxy at over 500,000 miles per hour, or 828,000 kilometers per hour.

On top of all that, you're moving because the entire universe is expanding outward. All the time.

Odd radio circles are glowing around some galaxies. Now we know why

But in the 1970s, astrophysicists noticed that something was off about our galactic neighborhood, or Local Group. The whole clump of neighboring galaxies were being pulled off course at over one million miles per hour, towards something we couldn't see.

They called this region the Great Attractor. But their ability to study it was limited.

"The Milky Way has millions and millions of stars and a lot of dust, which is blocking all that information that we could be measuring in that direction. So our own galaxy's blocking the Great Attractor," says Jorge Moreno , a computational astrophysicist at Pomona College. This area we cannot see is known to researchers as the Zone of Avoidance.

What Is Dark Energy? Physicists Aren't Even Sure

Scientists still don't know the full details of what and exactly how the Milky Way and its neighboring galaxies off course, but there have been several candidates over the last few decades.

Most recently, the prime suspect is the supercluster Laniakea, which is Hawaiian for 'immense heaven' or 'immeasurable heaven.'

Curious about other cosmic mysteries? Email us at [email protected] .

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify , Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts .

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave .

Today's episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Rebecca, Rachel and Regina checked the facts. Maggie Luthar was the audio engineer.

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Top 10 For Miss Universe 2024 . Miss universe top 10 favorites according to fan votes. Leading the pack with the highest number of titles is the united states, boasting an impressive figure of nine miss.

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