Our Earth is just a small small object floating in around in the nothingness of space. The Earth is in our solar system along with the sun and all the other planets and moons. Our solar system is located within the Milky Way Galaxy. We are in the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy that holds most of the galaxy's’ dusts and gases.(1) Our galaxy is a spiral galaxy.(2) Spiral galaxies tend to spin in a circle, like a spiral, hence their name. The Milky Way Galaxy is one of the stereotypical spiral galaxies, or in other words, we spin.(3) Our universe is about 13.75 billion years old. It has no real structure. Everything is basically where it ended up with no real rhyme or reason why it happened the way it did. “Using entire galaxies as lenses to look at other galaxies, researchers have a newly precise way to measure the size and age of the universe and how rapidly it is expanding, on par with other techniques.” (4) This measurement is called the Hubble Constant. It explains the size, or overall scale, of the entire universe.
Our universe is expanding. It has been expanding since the very beginning of its existence, about 14 billion years ago.(5) This is all explained in our theory, The Big Bang Theory. We know that the universe is expanding because of other galaxies that we have been watching for hundreds of years. These other galaxies are all expanding and moving apart from each other at a constant rate. The expansion first started with a big hot explosion of all of space, which was originally completely filled with matter. This explosion split apart all of the matter that was in the universe at the time and made it into the planets, moons, stars and galaxies that we have today. (5) All of this matter is still moving through space, expanding farther and farther out.(6) This matter eventually clumped together and formed the solar systems, stars, and galaxies that we have today.
The cosmic microwave has helped determine the age of the universe because it has shown us how long it takes for one microwave to pass. The other waves pass through and now that we know how long it took for the universe to get to where it is currently we can tell how long it will take us to keeep expanding. And also I am sorry Mrs. Grivins, i got it in as soon as i got home and decided that i just needed to get it in so I don't think it is completly finished.
Bib:
1)`"The Location of the Solar System in the Milky Way Galaxy." Astrodigital: Home of Explore Mars, Space Exploration, Astronomical Adventures, Digital Excursions, and the Chicago Area Chapters of the National Space Society and Mars Society. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.astrodigital.org/astronomy/solarsystemgalaxy.html>.
2) "The Milky Way Galaxy." Main Page - CASS. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://casswww.ucsd.edu/archive/public/tutorial/MW.html>.
3)"Galactic Lenses Confirm Universe’s Age, Size | Space.com." Space, NASA Information & News | Outer Space Flight Videos & Pictures | Astronomy, Solar System Images | Space.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.space.com/7989-galactic-lenses-confirm-universes-age-size.html>.
4)"Astronomically Large Lenses Measure the Age and Size of the Universe." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100301122334.htm>.
5)"The Big Bang and the Expansion of the Universe." An Atlas of The Universe. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/bigbang.html>.
6)"Origins of the Universe, Big Bang Theory Information, Big Bang Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic." Science and Space Facts, Science and Space, Human Body, Health, Earth, Human Disease - National Geographic. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/universe/origins-universe-article/>.
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