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why is hubbles law so valuable for finding distances in our universe

by Cornell Runolfsson Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago

It has the same value everywhere in the universe at one instant, but it does change over time. So when we look at distant galaxies, we are effectively looking into the past due to the time is has taken light to travel to us. So Hubble’s law is useful if you know the velocity of recession for a galaxy and want a rough estimate of its distances.

The Hubble constant is one of the most important numbers in cosmology because it tells us how fast the universe is expanding, which can be used to determine the age of the universe and its history.

Full Answer

What does Hubble's law say about the universe?

Hubble's law, which says simply that a galaxy's velocity (or as is sometimes plotted, its redshift) is directly proportional to its distance, also tells us something important about the state of the universe. If the universe is static and unchanging, there should be no correlation between distance and velocity.

Does Hubble's law hold for a large range of distances?

Most astronomers believe that Hubble's Law does, however, hold true for a large range of distances in the universe. It should be noted that, on very large scales, Einstein's theory predicts departures from a strictly linear Hubble law.

How did Edwin Hubble contribute to the study of galaxies?

Although other astronomers, such as Vesto Silpher, did much of the work needed to measure the galaxy redshifts, Hubble was the one who developed techniques for estimating the distance to the galaxies, and who pulled it all together to show how distance and speed were related.

Why is the Hubble constant so important to astronomers?

Because the exact value of the Hubble constant, H, is so important in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology – it leads to an estimate of the age of the universe, helps test theories of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and much more – a great deal of effort has gone into working it out.

Why is the use of Hubble's law to measure distances?

Hubble's law, which says simply that a galaxy's velocity (or as is sometimes plotted, its redshift) is directly proportional to its distance, also tells us something important about the state of the universe. If the universe is static and unchanging, there should be no correlation between distance and velocity.

What does Hubble's law tell us about the universe?

Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther they are, the faster they are moving away from Earth.

How is Hubble's law used to measure the distances to galaxies?

2:163:52Hubble's Law used to measure the distance to other galaxies - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipThe velocities of the galaxies were measured by using the degree of red shift of their spectra.MoreThe velocities of the galaxies were measured by using the degree of red shift of their spectra.

Why is Hubble's law considered one of the most important discoveries?

Why is Hubble's law considered one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy? it allows us to estimate the distance for the galaxy that are too far away to see individual cepheids.

How does Hubble's law prove the universe is expanding?

Since all the galaxies are moving away from us, then they must all be moving away from each other. This is explained if the Universe, as a whole, is expanding. In a real sense, Hubble's law, the recession velocity of galaxies, is an illusion. The galaxies are not moving, the space between them is literally expanded.

How does Hubble's law tell us the universe is expanding?

During the 1920's and 30's, Edwin Hubble discovered that the Universe is expanding, with galaxies moving away from each other at a velocity given by an expression known as Hubble's Law: v = H*r.

How does Hubble measure distance and velocity?

Velocity is measurable thanks to the Doppler shift. By taking the spectrum of a distant object, such as a galaxy, astronomers can see a shift in the lines of its spectrum and from this shift determine its velocity. Putting this velocity into the Hubble equation, they determine the distance.

How do we measure the distance between galaxies?

Astronomers can use what are called surface brightness fluctuations (SBF, for short), along with the color of a galaxy, to calculate how far away it is from earth. Most galaxies measured in this way are millions of light years away.

What is our most accurate technique for measuring the distance to a nearby star?

It's called "parallax". Basically you look at how much the star appears to move in the sky as a result of the earth actually moving on its orbit aroun the sun; the more the star seems to move the closer it is.

What is the most accurate way to determine the distance to a distant galaxy a galaxy that is too far away for us to see individual stars )? Quizlet?

v = H0 x d. Astronomers more often use the law in reverse - measuring a galaxy's speed from its redshift and then using Hubble's law to estimate its distance. It is the most useful technique for determining distances to galaxies that are very far away.

What are the evidence that support the expanding of universe?

The evidence that the universe is expanding comes with something called the red-shift of light. Light travels to Earth from other galaxies. As the light from that galaxy gets closer to Earth, the distance between Earth and the galaxy increases, which causes the wavelength of that light to get longer.

How does Hubble's law change in an accelerating universe?

As Hubble's Law is 𝑣 =𝐻0𝐷 .. and since v = dD/dt, v ends up increasing distance over time. And by Hubble's Law the increase in D ends up increasing v itself. So, this circular dependency suggests that the universe is accelerating over time. But since Hubble's constant is ironically not a constant & changes over time !

What information can be obtained from the Hubble constant?

The Hubble Constant can be used to determine the intrinsic brightness and masses of stars in nearby galaxies, examine those same properties in more distant galaxies and galaxy clusters, deduce the amount of dark matter present in the universe, obtain the scale size of faraway galaxy clusters, and serve as a test for ...

Is hubbles law true?

If the theory is not correct, the distances determined in this way are all nonsense. Most astronomers believe that Hubble's Law does, however, hold true for a large range of distances in the universe. It should be noted that, on very large scales, Einstein's theory predicts departures from a strictly linear Hubble law.

What is Hubble's Law explain what we mean when we say that Hubble's constant is between 21 and 23 kilometers per second per million light years?

Explain what we mean when we say that Hubble's constant is between 21 and 23 kilometers per second per million light-years. -A law that states further galaxies more away from us with greater speeds. -It means that the speed of the galaxy lies between 21 and 23 km/s for every million light years it is away form us.

What does Hubble's law say about galaxies?

Hubble's law says that galaxies move away from each other at a speed proportional to their distance. It is the basis for confirming that the universe is expanding.

What does Hubble's law say about galaxies moving away from each other?

Hubble's law says that galaxies move away from each other at a speed proportional to their distance. It is the basis for confirming that the universe is expanding .

Why is the Hubble constant important?

Because the exact value of the Hubble constant, H, is so important in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology – it leads to an estimate of the age of the universe, helps test theories of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and much more – a great deal of effort has gone into working it out.

Why is the Hubble law expressed as a relationship between redshift and distance?

Today the Hubble law is usually expressed as a relationship between redshift and distance, partly because redshift is what astronomers can measure directly.

What is the name of the law that describes the distance to objects beyond the local group?

Hubble’s Law. caption] “The distance to objects beyond the Local Group is closely related to how fast they seem to be receding from us,” that’s Hubble’s law in a nutshell. Edwin Hubble, the astronomer the Hubble Space Telescope is named after, first described the relationship which later bore his name in a paper in 1929;

When was the Hubble Law revised?

Perhaps the most dramatic revision to the Hubble Law came in 1998, when two teams independently announced that they’d discovered that the rate of expansion of the universe is accelerating; the shorthand name for this observation is Dark Energy. Harvard University’s Professor of Cosmology John Huchra maintains a webpage on the history ...

Who is the professor of cosmology at Harvard University?

Harvard University’s Professor of Cosmology John Huchra maintains a webpage on the history of the Hubble constant, and this page from Ned Wright’s Cosmology Tutorial explains how the Hubble law and cosmology are related. There are several Universe Today stories about the Hubble relationship and the Hubble constant;

Who developed the method of measuring the distance between galaxies?

Although other astronomers, such as Vesto Silpher, did much of the work needed to measure the galaxy redshifts, Hubble was the one who developed techniques for estimating the distance to the galaxies, and who pulled it all together to show how distance and speed were related.

Is Hubble's law exact?

Hubble’s Law is not exact; the measured redshift of some galaxies is different from what Hubble’s Law says it should be, given their distances. This is particularly noticeable for galaxy clusters, and is explained as the motion of galaxies within their local groups or clusters, due to their mutual gravitation.

Why is Hubble’s law so important?

Because the exact value of the Hubble constant, H, is so important in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology – it leads to an estimate of the age of the universe, helps test theories of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, and much more – a great deal of effort has gone into working it out.

What does Hubble’s Law imply about the universe?

Hubble’s law, which says simply that a galaxy’s velocity (or as is sometimes plotted, its redshift) is directly proportional to its distance, also tells us something important about the state of the universe. If the universe is static and unchanging, there should be no correlation between distance and velocity.

What does the Hubble law imply about the history of the universe Group of answer choices?

What does Hubble’s law imply about the history of the universe? The universe had a beginning and has expanded since, giving it a finite age. … Astronomers know the universe is expanding because: galaxies farther away are moving away from us faster.

What did Edwin Hubble confirm about the universe?

Hubble’s brilliant observation was that the red shift of galaxies was directly proportional to the distance of the galaxy from earth. That meant that things farther away from Earth were moving away faster. In other words, the universe must be expanding. He announced his finding in 1929.

What kind of universe do we live in?

We live on a planet called Earth that is part of our solar system. But where is our solar system? It’s a small part of the Milky Way Galaxy. A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems.

What is outside the universe?

Astronomers think space outside of the observable universe might be an infinite expanse of what we see in the cosmos around us, distributed pretty much the same as it is in the observable universe.

Why was Hubble’s age of the universe wrong?

This age estimate for the universe, Hubble acknowledged, was clearly less than the age of the Earth, as determined by geologists who measured the radioactivity in rocks. … Walter Baade made the crucial observation that doubled the distance scale and thus resolved the problem that the universe seemed too young.

What is the theory used to determine the distances in the universe?

Scientists must move from direct observation to using observations in conjunction with a theory. The theory used to determine these very great distances in the universe is based on the discovery by Edwin Hubble that the universe is expanding. In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced that almost all galaxies appeared to be moving away from us. ...

When did Hubble discover that all galaxies were moving away from each other?

In 1929 , Edwin Hubble announced that almost all galaxies appeared to be moving away from us. In fact, he found that the universe was expanding - with all of the galaxies moving away from each other. This phenomenon was observed as a redshift of a galaxy's spectrum.

How fast is the Hubble constant?

The exact value of the Hubble constant is still somewhat uncertain, but is generally believed to be around 65 kilometers per second for every megaparsec in distance . (A megaparsec is given by 1 Mpc = 3 x 10 6 light-years). This means that a galaxy 1 megaparsec away will be moving away from us at a speed of 65 km/sec, while another galaxy 100 megaparsecs away will be receding at 100 times this speed. So essentially, the Hubble constant reflects the rate at which the universe is expanding.

How fast is a galaxy moving away from us?

This means that a galaxy 1 megaparsec away will be moving away from us at a speed of 65 km/sec, while another galaxy 100 megaparsecs away will be receding at 100 times this speed. So essentially, the Hubble constant reflects the rate at which the universe is expanding. So to determine an object's distance, we only need to know its velocity.

How is velocity measurable?

Velocity is measurable thanks to the Doppler shift. By taking the spectrum of a distant object, such as a galaxy, astronomers can see a shift in the lines of its spectrum and from this shift determine its velocity. Putting this velocity into the Hubble equation, they determine the distance.

What is Einstein's theory of departure?

It should be noted that, on very large scales, Einstein's theory predicts departures from a strictly linear Hubble law. The amount of departure, and the type, depends on the value of the total mass of the universe.

What is Starchild site?

The StarChild site is a service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) , Dr. Alan Smale (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/ GSFC.

How to tell Hubble's law?

Hubble's law can be easily depicted in a "Hubble diagram" in which the velocity (assumed approximately proportional to the redshift) of an object is plotted with respect to its distance from the observer. A straight line of positive slope on this diagram is the visual depiction of Hubble's law.

What is Hubble's law?

Hubble's law is considered the first observational basis for the expansion of the universe, and today it serves as one of the pieces of evidence most often cited in support of the Big Bang model. The motion of astronomical objects due solely to this expansion is known as the Hubble flow.

What are the parameters of Hubble's law?

The parameters that appear in Hubble's law, velocities and distances, are not directly measured. In reality we determine, say, a supernova brightness, which provides information about its distance, and the redshift z = ∆ λ / λ of its spectrum of radiation. Hubble correlated brightness and parameter z .

How to find the Hubble constant?

The value of the Hubble constant is estimated by measuring the redshift of distant galaxies and then determining the distances to them by some other method than Hubble's law. This approach forms part of the cosmic distance ladder for measuring distances to extragalactic objects.

What is the relationship between redshift and distance?

From this perspective, Hubble's law is a fundamental relation between (i) the recessional velocity contributed by the expansion of space and (ii) the distance to an object; the connection between redshift and distance is a crutch used to connect Hubble's law with observations.

What did Hubble's theory of the universe mean?

A decade before Hubble made his observations, a number of physicists and mathematicians had established a consistent theory of an expanding universe by using Einstein's field equations of general relativity. Applying the most general principles to the nature of the universe yielded a dynamic solution that conflicted with the then-prevalent notion of a static universe .

Why did Einstein abandon his theory of relativity?

After Hubble's discovery was published, Albert Einstein abandoned his work on the cosmological constant, which he had designed to modify his equations of general relativity to allow them to produce a static solution, which he thought was the correct state of the universe. The Einstein equations in their simplest form model generated either an expanding or contracting universe, so Einstein's cosmological constant was artificially created to counter the expansion or contraction to get a perfect static and flat universe. After Hubble's discovery that the universe was, in fact, expanding, Einstein called his faulty assumption that the universe is static his "biggest mistake". On its own, general relativity could predict the expansion of the universe, which (through observations such as the bending of light by large masses, or the precession of the orbit of Mercury) could be experimentally observed and compared to his theoretical calculations using particular solutions of the equations he had originally formulated.

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