this page is intentional. a new view of the universe x fred watson, aao april 2005 a new view of the...
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A new view of the Universe XFred Watson, AAOApril 2005
A new view of the Universe XFred Watson, AAOApril 2005
The discovery of life
The discovery of life
Mars Dust Storm
June 26, 2001 September 4, 2001
The surface of Mars… Columbia Hills
Gusev crater basalt (Spirit Rover)
Mounting evidence for subterranean ice and surface water flows in the past million years
ESA want to drill into the permafrost…
Mysterious Phobos… Comet Wild-2
Aurorae on Saturn (HST + Cassini)…
Cassini images - Dione… Mimas… Titan
Amazing Iapetus…
Huygens touchdown on Titan
Planet detection with OWL
0.5”
OWL can detect Earth to 75 l.y.Biomarkers on Earth to about 45 l.y.
Star image from OWL with extreme adaptive optics correction
Saturn Analogue:
With rings
Without rings
Dyudina et al, 2004 (Australian National University)
ELT terrestrial planet studies – are we alone?
• To study exo-earths, need:
• large sample (~1000 stars)• to reach ~30pc•resolution (~33mas)•Suppression ~1010
•>50m
• Want to obtain:
• SPECTROSCOPY
• O2, H2O
• Orbits
• Whole systems
What is dark energy?
What is dark energy?
Power spectrum wiggles…
Characteristic separations are 180º/lPosition of first peak yields cosmic energy density
~13 billion years
The Universetoday
Origin of the Universe
Current Model:
Defining quantities: Hubble constant, H0 (current expansion)
cosmic density of all matter, m
cosmic density of ordinary matter, b
dark energy (cosmological constant, )
(evidence from distant supernovae, etc.)
Compare with the power spectrum of the 2dF survey to see its evolution and obtain M + (1)
To determine the characteristics of the Dark Energy (cosmological constant or dynamic vacuum
energy?), we need to examine the power spectrum at higher redshifts –
hence AAOmega…
And what about cosmic strings…?And what about
cosmic strings…?
We perceive the Universe in 4 dimensions…
But there are problems because of the conflict
between general relativity and quantum theory…
There can’t be a singularity at the instant of the Big Bang…
This (and other considerations) have led to
the idea of cosmic strings occupying a 10-dimensional
space…
The possibility of multiple universes…
Look here, this Universe you sold me…
It’s expanding.
The Multiverse
The ekpyrotic theory…
Some useful websites:
AAO: www.aao.gov.auRAVE: www.rave-survey.aip.de/rave/Cosmological constant: pancake.uchicago.edu/~carroll/encyc/History of mathematics:
www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/index.htmlNASA home: www.nasa.govWMAP: map.gsfc.nasa.govWhat’s in the sky? www.heavens-above.comDark skies: www.darksky.orgScience news: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/techFred Watson’s home page: www.aao.gov.au/local/www/fgw/
