The Universe’s BIG questions

1. How do we know what’s out there?

2. Is there life elsewhere?

3. Where did the universe come from?

How we know distances

How we know what things are made of

How we know motions

NASA’s SpitzerSpace Telescope

European SpaceAgency KeplerTelescope (planned)

Southern AfricanLarge Telescope

Very Large TelescopeIn Chile

Nearest stars D=10 to 1000 light years

Our solar system (vastly oversized)

Center of Milky WayD=25,000 light years

Andromeda GalaxyD=1 million light years

Clusters of galaxiesD=100 million light years

Most distant galaxies(edge of observable universe)D=13 billion light years

Is there life elsewhere?

100 Billion stars in the Milky Way

100,000,000

If 1/10 have planets -> 10,000,000 systems with planetsIf 10 planets per system -> 100,000,000 planets!If 1/100 have planets with right conditions -> 1,000,000 possible planetsIf 1/100 actually have life develop -> 10,000 possible planets with life?

?We simply don’t know yet.

Where did the Universe come from?

Chance?

Or Purpose?

In the beginning, the Lord God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formlessvoid and darkness covered the face of the deep. Then God said “Let there be light”, and therewas light. And God saw the the light was good. … And God saw everything that he had made,and it was very good. - Book of Genesis , 4000 B.C.

The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of his hand. – Book of Psalms, 2000 B.C.

There is a thing confusedly formed, born before heaven and earth, silent and void, it stands alone and does not change. I know not its name, so I style it ‘the way’’. I give it the Makeshift name of “The Great’’. - China, 500 B.C.

In the beginning, the heavens and the earth were still one, and all was chaos. The universe itself was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside itself….Pan Gu awoke…took up a broad ax to crack open the egg. … When Pan Gu died, his breath became the wind, is voice the thunder.One eye became the moon, the other the sun. - China (ca. 200 )

….several Hindu creation stories….

and in some traditions, the universe is timeless, without beginning or end.

Time ago

13 Billion yr

12 Billion yr

8 Billion yr

Present

Augustine

In the beginning were created only the germs or causes of the forms of life….

Johannes Kepler

“…Oh God, I am thinking thy thoughts after thee.”

James Clerk Maxwell

And God said….

· B= 0 x B = 0J + 00 E/t· E = 1/0 x E = -B/t

…and there was light.

Blaise Pascal

Who will follow these marvelous processes? The Author of these wonders understands them…Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place andtime been allotted to me…?

Steven Hawking

“Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? …. What breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?”