Sketch a caricature or diagram of the situation or phenomenon showing that Hubble’s Law strongly implies an expanding universe. And provide an explanation.

(a) What Hubble constant corresponds to an approximate age of the universe of 1010 y? To get an approximate value, assume the expansion rate is constant and calculate the speed at which two galaxies must move apart to be separated by 1 Mly (present average galactic separation) in a time of 1010 y. (b) Similarly, what Hubble constant corresponds to a universe approximately 21010years old?

It is possible to derive the age of the universe given the value of the Hubble constant and the distance to a galaxy, again with the assumption that the value of the Hubble constant has not changed since the Big Bang. Consider a galaxy at a distance of 400 million light-years receding from us at a velocity, v. If the Hubble constant is 20 km/s per million light-years, what is its velocity? How long ago was that galaxy right next door to our own Galaxy if it has always been receding at its present rate? Express your answer in years. Since the universe began when all galaxies were very close together, this number is a rough estimate for the age of the universe.

Galaxies are found in the “walls” of huge voids; very few galaxies are found in the voids themselves. The text says that the structure of filaments and voids has been present in the universe since shortly after the expansion began 13.8 billion years ago. In science, we always have to check to see whether some conclusion is contradicted by any other information we have. In this case, we can ask whether the voids would have filled up with galaxies in roughly 14 billion years. Observations show that in addition to the motion associated with the expansion of the universe, the galaxies in the walls of the voids are moving in random directions at typical speeds of 300 km/s. At least some of them will be moving into the voids. How far into the void will a galaxy move in 14 billion years? Is it a reasonable hypothesis that the voids have existed for 14 billion years?

Some theorists expected that observations would show that the density of matter in the universe is just equal to the critical density. Do the current observations support this hypothesis?

(a) Calculate The approximate age of the universe from the average value of the Hubble constant, To do this, calculate the time it would take to travel 1 Mly at a constant expansion rate of 20 km/s. (b) If deceleration is taken into account, would the actual age of the universe be greater or less than that found here? Explain.

In the Check Your Learning section of Example 27.1, you were told that several lines of hydrogen absorption in the visible spectrum have rest wavelengths of 410 nm, 434 nm, 486 nm, and 656 nm. In a spectrum of a distant galaxy, these same lines are observed to have wavelengths of 492 nm, 521 nm, 583 nm, and 787 nm, respectively. The example demonstrated that z=0.20 for the 410 nm line. Show that you will obtain the same redshift regardless of which absorption line you measure.

Astronomers have been making maps by observing a slice of the universe and seeing where the galaxies lie within that slice. If the universe is isotropic and homogeneous, why do they need more than one slice? Suppose they now want to make each slice extend farther into the universe. What do they need to do?

Assume the average density of the universe is 0.1 of the critical density needed for closure. What is the average number of protons per cubic meter, assuming the universe is composed mostly of hydrogen?

Calculate the velocity, the distance, and the look-back time of the most distant galaxies in Figure 28.21 using the Hubble constant given in this text and the redshift given in the diagram. Remember the Doppler formula for velocity (v=c) and the Hubble law ( v=Hd , where d is the distance to a galaxy). For these low velocities, you can neglect relativistic effects. Figure 28.21 Sloan Digital Sky Survey Map of the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe. This image shows slices from the SDSS map. The point at the center corresponds to the Milky Way and might say “You Are Here!” Points on the map moving outward from the center are farther away. The distance to the galaxies is indicated by their redshifts (following Hubble’s law), shown on the horizontal line going right from the center. The redshift z=/ , where is the difference between the observed wavelength and the wavelength emitted by a nonmoving source in the laboratory. Hour angle on the sky is shown around the circumference of the circular graph. The colors of the galaxies indicate the ages of their stars, with the redder color showing galaxies that are made of older stars. The outer circle is at a distance of two billion light-years from us. Note that red (older stars) galaxies are more strongly clustered than blue galaxies (young stars). The unmapped areas are where our view of the universe is obstructed by dust in our own Galaxy. (credit: modification of work by M. Blanton and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey)