Transcript Scale of the Universe

Scale of the Universe

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0lxbzgwW7I
Instructions for
Scale of the Universe activity:

1. You will be given a tab for an object in our universe.
2. Think about the size of your object and align
yourself with your classmates in the back of the
room
3. Smallest object should be closest to the Astronomy
bulletin board. Largest objects should be closest to
the sinks.
Answers to the correct
order

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Proton
Oxygen nucleus
Oxygen atom
Red blood cell
Eyelash
Pupil of your eye
Arm’s reach
Ferris wheel
Meteor crater in AZ
Hudson bay
Our moon
Mars
Earth
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Jupiter
Moon’s orbit
Sun
Earth’s orbit
Solar system
Kuiper belt
Oort cloud
Our star neighborhood
Milky way galaxy
Our local group of galaxies
Virgo Super cluster
Observable universe
Questions

 Were there any sizes you were unsure of?
 Did you have a good idea of where everything
fit in?
 Was there anything you heard that made you
think “I want to learn more about that?”
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Some explanation

An atom has a small, dense nucleus composed of neutrons and protons.
Our Sun’s diameter (1,380,000 km) is roughly 1.8 times longer than our
moon’s orbit diameter. •
All Oort Cloud objects, from planets in our solar system to far-out
comets, are bound by gravity to our massive sun/star.
On a clear dark night, we can see a few thousand star/suns in
our immediate “neighborhood” with the naked eye.
Our star “neighborhood” spirals with billions of other stars in our
home Milky Way galaxy.
Our Milky Way circles with numerous neighboring galaxies to form a
Local Group.
Our Local Group rotates near the outer edge of many other groups of
galaxies with the Virgo Group near its center. This huge,
gravitationally bound “group of galaxy groups” is called the Virgo
Supercluster.
The Virgo Supercluster floats like a dust mote among 100 billion other
galaxies that comprise the observable universe.
Homework

 Find out the size of your object. Try to find out both
the diameter and circumference of your object. If it
is not spherical imagine a sphere around it and
report back next class.
http://scaleofuniverse.com/
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn
0W6U
Large scale structure of the
universe

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJpC_oQQxPI
 This is a five minute large-scale structure of the
Universe shown in 3 different scientific observation
projects:
 Sloan (Digital Sky Survey), Millenium (3D model of
the universe) and Filaments grown process simulation.