*This is the title of an out of print book

by H. C. Pine from which I will draw some of

my lectures from.

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Section I: A Some Definitions

• What are we doing here?
• We're here to study the Milky Way galaxy and everything it .
• That includes US!
• The Milky Way is our local city of stars. Its composed of stars, planets, gas, dust, light and some mysterious stuff called "dark matter"

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(In the pictures below L = characteristic size scale. From here on out we are going to be using "Scientific Notation" to represent big numbers. Here is an example of scientific notation. The number one hundred thousand is 1 with 5 zeros after it or --> 10⁵ = 100,000)

L = 10²² cm

L = 10²⁶ cm

L = 10¹⁰ cm

L = 10⁶ - 10⁷ cm Planets are rocky or gaseous spheres which form around stars. L = 10¹⁹ cm In between the stars are vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Some of these are the remnants of dying stars some are wombs of pre-natal stars L = 10¹⁹ cm Along with matter and light there is also exotic kinds of stuff out there: Anti-matter, Dark-matter...

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"Somewhere, there is something incredible waiting to be known" carl sagan

You can ask this question 2 ways.
 

• Why should you as an individual care?
• Why should we as a culture or society care (and pay for it)

In some sense the answers will be the same since they always hinge on the concept of the Truth and its worth.
 
 
 

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Physics, Astrophysics and the Individual "Man Differs from the Animal only a little; most people throw that little away"

News flash! You are going to die.  
 
 
 

Most of Life is mysterious, Astronomy and AstroPHYSICS puts that mystery into the context of an even greater mystery: that of BEING as a whole. Astronomy asks fundamental questions about the PHYSICAL component of existence.

The current age of the Universe is between 10 and 20 billion years.

t_Uni = 10¹⁰ = 10,000,000,000

You, on the other hand be will be lucky to make it to 100.

t_You = 10² = 100

The Cosmic Calendar: If we consider the whole time the Universe has existed to be a single year with the "Big Bang" occurring on New Years then here is how the landmarks of Universal History play out
 

Date	Event
Origin of Universe	Jan 1
Origin of Milky Way Galaxy	May 1
Origin of Solar System	Sept 9
Formation of Earth	Sept 14
Sexual reproduction by micro-organisms	Nov 1
Land Plants	Dec 19
First Dinosaurs	Dec 25
Dino Extinction	Dec 28
First Primates	Dec 30
Australopithicenes (Lucy)	10:00 pm Dec 31
Homo Erectus	11:40 pm Dec 31
Homo sapiens sapiens	11:58:57 pm Dec 31
Greeks to modern era	11:59:55 -
Average Human Life Span	.1 second

 

 

 

OK, so what we have is the fact that we are pretty small in the scheme of things. This can be a disconcerting to some or a comfort.

To me its comforting. The Universe is so vast who cares if my sink leaks or if my tires are flat!

The size and age of the Universe are so incomprehensible we are forced out of our mundane everyday way of viewing the world. This is a good thing.

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  "A scientist is ... a learned child. There is something of the scientist in every child. Others must outgrow it. Scientists can stay that stay that way all their lives"

"Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall be noting"

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free"

"Its the questions you should love."

 
There are different Kinds of Truth:

• Emotional - "I Love You"
• Religious - "And God said ____" Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim ...
• Artistic - "To be or not to be"
• Financial - The Law of Supply and Demand

What makes Physics (Science in general) so powerful and, perhaps unique, is its claim to be able to determine principles, laws, truths about the physical world.
 

• This is claim is held to be universal.
• The Law of Gravity should be the same for everyone, everywhere.
• Science is held to be an empirical (based on experiment) means for determining the structure or behavior of the World.

For many people Science describes the Reality: "Just the Facts"

Is this true? Does such a thing even exist?

External = Outside our heads. Its there even if we aren't.

Independent = Our culture or color shouldn't matter. The EIOR is the same for everyone even extra terrestrials (an important point for SETI).

Objective = There is a way of asking questions about it that provides universally true answers.

Reality = What exists, what is.

 

One of the questions we will be exploring in this class through the lens of astronomy and astrophysics is:

 

 

Is there such a thing as an EIOR and does science have access to it?

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Currently Science is under attack from scholars in the Humanities claiming that Science is just a "culturally created" system of rules and knowledge.

According to this view Science has no special claim to the Truth.

Is Physics and Astrophysics just our culture's Myth System?
 
 
 

Zeus, ruler of greek pantheon

 
 
 
 
 
 

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Physics, Astrophysics, and Society
 
 

"The dangers that face the world can, every one of them, be traced
 back to science.  The salvation's that may save the world will, 
everyone one of them, be traced back to science

issac asimov Is the first part of this quote true? How about the second part?

 
 
 
 
 
 

Why do we as a Culture support science?

The Hubble Space Telescope cost more than 1 billion dollars to build.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Think of how this money could be used to combat poverty and homelessness
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Or what would happen if even a fraction of this was put towards the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts...
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

But as a Culture we do get some really cool things out of the 1 billion investment like ...
 
 
 

So...Is it worth it?

 
 
 
 
 
 

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Senator to Scientist at Budget Hearing: "Sir how does your research contribute to the national defense?"

Scientist: "It makes the country worth defending."

Two traditional answers to the question: The God Gambit and the Widget Excuse

God Gambit: We are human and it is our fundamental nature to be curious. We must explore just as we must breathe.

In a thousand years the United States of America won't be remembered for producing The Simpsons,

(not that it isn't a great show).

We will be remembered for what we have done in Science which has been profound.

A billion dollars to get a mystical feeling? Shouldn't we just go to church or read poetry. Can't feel just as inspired by feeding the hungry?

 

The Widget Excuse: You have to fund basic or "blue-sky" research because you never know where it will lead.

 

 

Spin-offs:

Teflon, the non-stick material on most frying pans was invented for use on space capsules in the Apollo space program in 1960's.

 

 
 
 

When it was invented in the late 1950s the Laser was considered to be just a artifact of basic physics without any practical use. Now its at the heart of billion dollar businesses (CDs, Supermarket scanners, etc.)

 

 
 
 

A billion dollars is a lot to pay for a non-stick frying pan coating? Can't we figure out what we need and then go and invent it without the expensive extra step?

 

 
  The Third Justification:

 
 
 
 
 
 

Because We're Going!: Sooner or later, if we don't wipe ourselves out, we are going to be exploring and colonizing Space. First its going to be the neighborhood - the solar system. Then it will be our section of town - the local stars. Finally it will be the whole city - the Galaxy. Its going to happen and what we are doing with astronomy and astrophysics is surveying.

For instance: Pulsars - nasty dead stars which produce superstrong gravitational and magnetic fields.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

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