ASTR 3 Lecture 1: Chapter 1: A Modern View of the Universe
Document Summary
Astronomy covers the structure and composition of the universe from its beginning to its ultimate end. Some places has gravity pull the gas together to make objects (ex. you) Universe is vast, possibly infinite space, sparsely filled with hydrogen and helium gas. Your atoms once drifted for more than a billion years in space. Your atoms have been part of several stars including at least one supernova explosion. The oceans will boil in 1 billion years. The chesapeake bay was formed through the impact of an asteroid 35 million years ago. At least 30% of stars have planets. 90% fusing h into he like the sun. Sun is in top 10% of brightest stars. A few stars 1,00,000x more luminous than the sun, most 10,000x fainter. Solar system is basically the sun with some left-overs. 1000x more massive than jupiter which is 2nd most massive object. Radius: 6. 96x10^5 km = 100 earth radii = 2x orbit of moon.
