This activity introduces students to the concepts of the redshift of a receding star. Students will learn about the properties of light, the Doppler effect, and also about Hubble’s discovery of the expansion of the universe.
This site offers new information pertaining to the Big Bang Theory. The new idea that they are proposing is that inflation took place at less than a tiny fraction of a second during which space underwent an enormous expansion. During the past 13 billion years, space has been expanding but at increasing rates, that is, the Universe is accelerating. Most of this expansion is driven not by the mass in protons and neutron but by a cosmological constant and by mysterious, unknown dark matter. The site discusses how they came to these conclusions.
This site provides a current look at what theorethical cosmologists know about our universe and it also examines the fundamental properties of the universe which have not yet been measured and quantified. It also describes the milestones in cosmology such as the discovery of the expansion of the universe, the role of type Ia supernovae, simulations of large scale structure, detection of dark matter by examining clusters of galaxies and gravitaional lensing, and also the Cosmic Microwave Background.
This site begins by discussing Edwin Hubble’s great contribution to astronomy, that the universe is expanding. The major points in his paper overviews the possibility of an infinite or finite universe, the history of our universe and how it has evolved, and he finishes by discussing wheter the fate of our universe is one that expands and eventually grows cold or the possibility that it will end in a big crunch.
