PHYS 3510 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Edwin Hubble, Observable Universe, Spiral Galaxy
Document Summary
The universal context of life (chapter 3) continued . The expansion of the universe and the big bang. Our solar system and other planetary systems. Prospects for finding life in the milky way and beyond. The age of the universe determines the amount of time available for life to begin and evolve within the universe. As of the early 1900s, it was unclear whether the universe was similar in age to the earth or if it had been around forever. Recent high precision measurements have shown that the universe is 13. 80 billion years old (+/- 0. 04 billion years) This is about 3 times older than the earth. The age of the universe and the speed of light (300,000 km/s) combine to set limits on where we might conceivably detect life. The observable universe consists of everything within 13. 8 billion light years of our location. The universe itself is much larger than the observable universe.
