Position of the earth in the universe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The position of the earth in the universe is known in relatively detail today, which can be attributed to the advances in practical and theoretical astronomy and cosmology over the past 400 years and especially the past century. Originally the geocentric view of the world prevailed , the view that the earth was at the center of a universe made up of the sun , moon , planets that can be seen with the naked eye and an outer sphere of fixed stars .

After the general recognition of the heliocentric worldview in the 18th century, observations by William Herschel and other researchers showed that the sun is located in an extensive, disc-shaped system that, according to today's estimates, consists of around 100 to 300 billion stars, the Milky Way . In the 20th century, it was recognized that the Milky Way is just one of many other galaxies in the universe. Eventually the overall structure of the observable universe became apparent. Neighboring galaxies group together in clusters , which in turn form superclusters . These in turn are connected to a network of filaments and voids , which represent what are probably the most extensive coherent structures in the universe. When viewed on even larger scales, the universe eventually appears

  • homogeneous - all its parts have on average the same density and composition
and
  • isotropic - its visible components are distributed equally regardless of the viewing direction.

Since the universe has neither a center nor an edge, there is no special reference point from which an absolute position of the earth in the universe could be given. The possibility of observing distant objects is limited in the same way in all directions. Hence, one can say that the earth lies in the center of the universe observable from us . In addition, information about the position of the earth in relation to astronomically visible structures can be made. Their position in the solar system or, in turn, its position within the galaxy is known.

The position of the earth on different scales.
The earth in the universe
Area expansion Remarks swell
earth 12,700 km in diameter Starting point.
Magnetosphere 63,000 km on the sunny side;
6,300,000 km on the shady side
The space influenced by the earth's magnetic field .
Lunar orbit 770,000 km The mean diameter of the lunar orbit relative to Earth.
Earth orbit 300,000,000 km
AU
The mean diameter of the earth's orbit relative to the sun.
Contains the Sun , Mercury and Venus .
Inner solar system 6 AE Contains the sun , the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars ) and the asteroid belt .
Outer solar system 60 AU Contains the outer planets ( Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , Neptune ).
Kuiper belt 96 AU Belt of Trans-Neptunian Objects . Contains the dwarf planets Pluto , Makemake and Haumea .
Heliosphere 160 AU Maximum spread of the solar wind .
Scattered disk 200 AU Region of isolated objects that encircle the Kuiper Belt. Contains the dwarf planet Eris .
Oort cloud a 100,000–200,000 AU
1.5–3 light years
Spherical shell with over a billion objects.
Solar system 3 light years Gravitational system of the sun. At the edge of the solar system the gravitational influence of the sun disappears compared to that of other stars.
Local flake 30 light years Interstellar cloud in which the sun is currently moving. b
Local bubble 210-815 light years Bubble in the interstellar medium in which the sun and its neighboring stars are currently moving. b
Remnant of an earlier supernova .
Gouldian belt 3,000 light years Belt of young stars through which the sun is currently moving. b
Orion poor 10,000 light years long The spiral arm of the Milky Way through which the sun is currently moving. b
Orbit of the solar system 56,000 light years The mean orbit diameter of the solar system relative to the center of the Milky Way . A circumnavigation takes about 225 to 250 million years.
Milky Way 200,000 light years Home galaxy of the solar system, consisting of approx. 100 to 300 billion stars and filled with interstellar matter .
Milky Way with satellite galaxies 1.64 million light years
0.5 mega parsec
The Milky Way and its gravitationally bound neighboring galaxies , such as the Sagittarius , Ursa Minor and Canis Major dwarf galaxies .
The specified dimension corresponds to the web diameter of the most distant dwarf galaxy, Leo I .
Local group 3 megaparsec Group of at least 47 galaxies, dominated by the Andromeda Nebula , the Milky Way and the Triangle Nebula .
Virgo superclusters 33 megaparsec The supercluster , to which the local group belongs, contains about 100 galaxy groups and clusters .
Laniakea 160 megaparsec The super cluster, which includes the Virgo star cluster, contains around 100,000 galaxies .
Filament 300 megaparsec The filament that includes the Virgo supercluster.
Observable Universe 28 gigaparsec The large-scale structure of the observable universe consists of over 100 billion galaxies, arranged in millions of superclusters, filaments and voids, which gives the appearance of a foam- like structure.
universe at least 28 gigaparsec Beyond the observable lies the (as yet) unobservable universe, from where no (in the broader sense) light has yet reached earth. As a result of the finiteness of the speed of light in a vacuum, which in turn is the highest possible speed of propagation of any known physical effect, these areas remain hidden . However, since the universality of the laws of nature is assumed, these regions probably also contain a foam-like coarse structure of galaxies (clusters) and voids.
a Existence is hypothetical.
bThe sun is gravitationally bound to the Milky Way in its entirety, but not directly to these concrete structures. The regions mentioned only coincide with their current position in their orbit around the center of the Milky Way.

Movie

The American educational film Ten High from 1977 depicts the universe on all scales scientifically researched at the time and moves up to 1024 meters (around 32 megaparsecs), i.e. the order of the Virgo supercluster.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert P. Kirshner: The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy and the Accelerating Cosmos . Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-691-05862-8 , pp. 71 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ^ Klaus Mainzer, J. Eisinger: The Little Book of Time . Springer, 2002, ISBN 0-387-95288-8 , pp. 55 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. David R. Lide: Handbook of Chemistry and Physics . CRC, 2000, ISBN 0-8493-0481-4 (81st edition).
  4. Amara Graps: The Earth's Magnetosphere . In: Max Planck Institute . 2000. Archived from the original on October 10, 2009. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
  5. NASA: moon profile , profile for exploring the solar system . Retrieved November 17, 2008.
  6. NASA: Profile of the Earth , Profile of the exploration of the solar system ( Memento of August 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved November 17, 2008.
  7. J.-M. Petit, A. Morbidelli, J. Chambers: The Primordial Excitation and Clearing of the Asteroid Belt . (PDF) In: Icarus . 153, No. 2, 2001, pp. 338-347. bibcode : 2001Icar..153..338P . doi : 10.1006 / icar.2001.6702 . Retrieved March 22, 2007.
  8. NASA: Neptune profile , profile for exploring the solar system . Retrieved November 17, 2008.
  9. ^ MC De Sanctis, MT Capria, A. Coradini: Thermal Evolution and Differentiation of Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects . In: The Astronomical Journal . 121, No. 5, 2001, pp. 2792-2799. bibcode : 2001AJ .... 121.2792D . doi : 10.1086 / 320385 . Retrieved August 28, 2008.
  10. NASA / JPL: Cassini's Big Sky: The View from the Center of Our Solar System . 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  11. HJ Fahr, T. Kausch, H. Scherer: A 5-fluid hydrodynamic approach to model the Solar System-interstellar medium interaction . (PDF) In: Astronomy & Astrophysics . 357, 2000, p. 268. bibcode : 2000A & A ... 357..268F . See Figures 1 and 2.
  12. JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 136199 Eris (2003 UB313) . October 2008. Retrieved January 21, 2009. ( Aphelion of Eris , the farthest known scattered disk object)
  13. Alessandro Morbidelli: Origin and dynamical evolution of comets and their reservoirs. arxiv : astro-ph / 0512256
  14. Mark Littmann: Planets Beyond. Discovering the Outer Solar System . Courier Dover Publications, 2004, ISBN 978-0-486-43602-9 , pp. 162 f .
  15. Mark Anderson: Don't stop till you get to the fluff. In: New Scientist. No. 2585, January 6, 2007. pp. 26-30.
  16. DM Seifr et al: Mapping the Countors of the Local Bubble . In: Astronomy and Astrophysics . 346, 1999, pp. 785-797. bibcode : 1999A & A ... 346..785S .
  17. Local Chimney and Superbubbles , Solstation.com
  18. ^ SB Popov, M. Colpi, ME Prokhorov, A. Treves, R. Turolla: Young isolated neutron stars from the Gould Belt . In: Astronomy and Astrophysics . 406, No. 1, 2003, pp. 111-117. arxiv : astro-ph / 0304141 . bibcode : 2003A & A ... 406..111P . doi : 10.1051 / 0004-6361: 20030680 . Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  19. Harold Spencer Jones, TH Huxley: Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Royal Institution of Great Britain, v. 38-39
  20. ^ F. Eisenhauer et al .: A Geometric Determination of the Distance to the Galactic Center . In: Astrophysical Journal . 597, No. 2, 2003, pp. L121-L124. arxiv : astro-ph / 0306220 . bibcode : 2003ApJ ... 597L.121E . doi : 10.1086 / 380188 .
  21. Stacy Leong: Period of the Sun's Orbit around the Galaxy (Cosmic Year) . In: The Physics Factbook . 2002. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
  22. ^ Eric Christian, Safi-Harb Samar: How large is the Milky Way? . Retrieved November 28, 2007.
  23. ^ H. Frommert, C. Kronberg: The Milky Way Galaxy . SEDS. August 25, 2005. Archived from the original on May 12, 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2007.
  24. ID Karachentsev, VE Karachentseva, WK Hutch Meier, DI Makarov: A Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies . In: Astronomical Journal . 127, No. 4, 2004, pp. 2031-2068. bibcode : 2004AJ .... 127.2031K . doi : 10.1086 / 382905 .
  25. ^ Andreas Brunthaler, Mark J. Reid et al .: The Geometric Distance and Proper Motion of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) . In: Science . 307, No. 5714, March 4, 2005, pp. 1440-1443. arxiv : astro-ph / 0503058 . bibcode : 2005Sci ... 307.1440B . doi : 10.1126 / science.1108342 . PMID 15746420 .
  26. ^ The Local Group of Galaxies . In: University of Arizona . Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. Retrieved January 28, 2013.
  27. ^ John P. Huchra: The Geometry of the Local Supercluster . Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 2007. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  28. Stars, Galaxies and Cosmology (PDF; 32 kB) Department of Mathematics, University of Auckland. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2009.
  29. The supercluster Laniakea . September 3, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  30. ^ John noble Wilford: Massive Clusters of Galaxies Defy Concepts of the Universe , New York Times. November 10, 1987. Retrieved November 1, 2009. 
  31. Glen Mackie: To see the Universe in a Grain of Taranaki Sand. Swinburne University, February 1, 2002, accessed December 20, 2006 .
  32. ^ Charles Lineweaver, Tamara M. Davis: Misconceptions about the Big Bang . Scientific American . 2005. Retrieved November 6, 2008.
  33. ^ J. Richard Gott et al .: A Map of the Universe. In: The Astrophysical Journal. Volume 624, Issue 2, May 2005. pp. 463-484. bibcode : 2005ApJ ... 624..463G ; pdf @ astro.princeton.edu, accessed December 3, 2011.
  34. How often does the Sun pass through a spiral arm in the Milky Way? Cornell University, archived from the original on January 17, 2015 ; Retrieved October 3, 2009 .