Download The Dance of the Fertile Universe

The Dance of the Fertile
Universe
Chance and Destiny Embrace
George V. Coyne, S.J.
Vatican Observatory
Chance or necessity: God?
• The Universe is Fertile Because
• It is old: 13.7 billion years
• It contains 10 thousand billion billion stars
From the Big Bang
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
Elliptical
Galaxy
Irregular
Galaxy
Spiral
Galaxy
M31
If we could view the Milky Way from above the
disk, we would see its spiral arms
We see our galaxy edge-on
Primary features: disk, bulge, halo, globular clusters
Milky Way in IR
MW Sagittarius 2
N.American Nebula
HST View of Orion
Orion 2
Clouds and Fragments
Tyffid Nebula
A peaceful death …
An eruptive death …
Crab Neb
Veil Neb
Solar System
Our Earth
Self-Conscious Universe
Holmes & Watson
A Camping Trip
Holmes - Watson
Age - Distance
A CALENDAR OF THE EVOLVING UNIVERSE
[Suppose we make the 13.7 billion year old universe have the age of
one earth year; then]
1 January: The Big Bang
7 February: The Milky Way is born
14 August: The Earth is born
4 September: First life on the Earth
15 December: The Cambrian Explosion
25 December: The dinosaurs appear
30 December: Extinction of the dinosaurs
A CALENDAR OF THE EVOLVING UNIVERSE
[Suppose we make the 13.7 billion year old universe have the age of
one earth year; then]
31 December:
at 7:00:00 pm: First hominids
at 11:58:00 pm: First humans
at 11:59:30 pm: Age of Agriculture
47 pm: The pyramids
58 pm: Jesus Christ is born
59 pm: Galileo is born
at 12 midnight: today
Age - Distance
Size - Mass
Brain Development
Evolutionary tree
Tree – leaves/trunk
Bacteria
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