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New views of the Universe

Giant Telescopes, Ancient Skies:. New views of the Universe. Caty Pilachowski. IUB Astronomy. This sketch of a telescope was included in a letter written by Giovanpattista della Porta in August 1609. Beginnings…. Thomas Harriet’s Drawings of the Moon and Sun. Telescopes and how they work.

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New views of the Universe

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  1. Giant Telescopes, Ancient Skies: New views of the Universe Caty Pilachowski IUB Astronomy

  2. This sketch of a telescope was included in a letter written by Giovanpattista della Porta in August 1609 Beginnings…

  3. Thomas Harriet’s Drawings of the Moon and Sun

  4. Telescopes and how they work from lenses… to mirrors

  5. Technology moves forward…

  6. The 3.5-meter WIYN telescope Kitt Peak, Arizona

  7. New Telescope Technology • “Fast” mirror • Lightweight mirror • Mirror shape controlled • Mechanically simpler mount • Temperature control

  8. The WIYN Mirror

  9. The WIYN New Technology “Dome” • Compact telescope chamber • Open for ventilation • Insulated to keep cool • Heated spaces kept separate

  10. Breaking the “cost curve” New technology provides better performance at lower cost WIYN

  11. WIYN TECHNOLOGY in 6-8 meter telescopes

  12. New technology telescopes give new views of the universe • How is the Universe put together? • What is the Universe made of? • Is there life elsewhere?

  13. How is the Universe put together? • The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe tells us about the state of the Universe 400,000 years after the Big Bang. How did the Universe evolve from this…

  14. …to this?

  15. Observing the assembly of galaxies Intergalactic gas Galaxy building blocks observed with Hubble Clumps concentrated by dark matter lead to galaxies Simulation The cosmic web of intergalactic gas and galaxies in a young universe

  16. WMAP also providesevidence of the first stars • Tiny fluctuations in polarization • About 200 million years after the Big Bang

  17. Can we see the first stars? Green=hot gasyellow=stars What we might see with a 30-meter telescope (Barton et al., 2004) hydrogen emission from hot stars Simulation 4 million LY

  18. everything else Helium Hydrogen The composition of stars and gas: What is the Universe made of? 90% hydrogen atoms 10% helium atoms Less than 1% everything else

  19. But ordinarymatter is only part of the story… 96% of the Universe is something else

  20. Galaxy interactions require more mass than we can see Computer simulation The real thing Antennae Galaxy (HST)

  21. Dark Matter • The universe contains additional matter we cannot see • Dark matter interacts with normal matter through gravity • Dark matter does NOT interact with light the way the normal matter does • The Universe contains 5 or 6 times MORE dark matter than normal matter • All galaxies are embedded in clouds of dark matter • We do not know what it is!

  22. “Redshift” of Galaxies • The spectra of galaxies are shifted to the red: galaxies are moving away from us. • The farther away a galaxy is, the faster it recedes from us!

  23. Hubble’s Law

  24. The brightness of stellar explosions tells us how far away galaxies are The speeds of very distant galaxies tell us the Universe is expanding faster today than in the past

  25. The Universe is speeding up! The universe is expanding faster today than it did in early times This expansion cannot be caused by ordinary or dark matter, which slows expansion. The acceleration suggests a new repulsive force (anti-gravity) acting on very large scales

  26. The New Force Is Called “Dark Energy” • Dark energy accounts for 73% of the content of the universe • Dark matter accounts for 23% • The content we’re familiar with is only 4%

  27. ? What is Dark Energy? • We don’t know ? Identifying what dark energy is requires bigger telescopes and new techniques ? ? ?

  28. Is there life elsewhere? More than 150 planets found around other stars Most are vastly different from our Solar System Artist’s conception of 55 Cancri’s planetary system

  29. Detecting Planets • detecting planets directly is hard • planets are small and dim • planets are near much brighter stars • detecting planets directly requires large telescopes (30-meters) and/or special instruments

  30. Imaging planets around other stars Gemini/Keck AO detection by Michael Liu (IfA), 2002 “Brown Dwarf” orbiting a star at the same distance as Saturn from our Sun

  31. Simulation of the spectra of 55 Cancri’s planets With a 30-meter telescope we can obtain the spectra of planets around other stars to search for the signatures of life Simulation by Sudarsky et al. 2003

  32. Connecting the First Nanoseconds to the Origin of Life

  33. New Telescopes to Answer New Questions • 30-meter telescope • 8-meter survey telescope • James Webb Space Telescope • Virtual Observatory

  34. JWST To study the formation of the first stars and galaxies will require a new generation of larger telescopes The giant, segmented-mirrortelescope Bigger than a football field!

  35. Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope LSST • 8.4-meters • Triple-fold optical design • 3 billion pixel-camera • 30,000 gigabytes each night • Survey the sky each week • Real-time data analysis • 3 billion sources + transients

  36. Exploring the Dark Universewith LSST

  37. WIYN and the Future: ODI • One Degree Imager • 1 billion pixels: • 32,000 x 32,000 pixels • “on chip” image correction

  38. The importance of image quality • text typical ground-based image Hubble image WIYN image The Ring Nebula

  39. ODI in the Astronomical Landscape The best wide-field imager, current or planned Image quality • median seeing 0.7” • sampling 0.11” • image correction Time resolution • 2-4s readouts • faster for small regions Diagnostic Imaging Information rate 2nd only to LSST (in 2012+)

  40. IU Science with ODI • Star clusters and stellar evolution • The history of nearby galaxies • Surveys of faint and distant galaxies

  41. Astronomy is looking up

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