Slides from a public talk given at Swinburne University of Technology. The audio from the lecture is here: https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/0_j3f4snlz Note: This presentation contains animations and videos that will not run in this format (sorry!). But you should be able to find them by searching using the credits on the slides.

1. A Tour of the Universe
(and selected cosmic mysteries)
Katie Mack
University of MelbourneImage:Alex Cherney www.astrokatie.com
@AstroKatie

2. What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
Image:Vincent van Gogh

3. What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
Image:Vincent van Gogh

4. What is the nature of the
Universe?
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
Image:Vincent van Gogh

5. What is the nature of the
Universe?
What are its major
components?
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
Image:Vincent van Gogh

6. What is the nature of the
Universe?
What are its major
components?
Where did it all come from?
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
Image:Vincent van Gogh

7. What is the nature of the
Universe?
What are its major
components?
Where did it all come from?
How did it begin and how
will it end?
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
What is Cosmology?
The Big Questions
Image:Vincent van Gogh

8. The Universe:A Tour

9. You Are Here
Image: NASA,Apollo 17

10. Image: Christian Aristotelian Cosmos. From Peter Apian, Cosmographia
Ptolemy: Geocentric Universe
(Ancient Greece, c.85-165)

11. Image: “Harmonia Macrocosmica” by Andreas Cellarius
Ptolemy: Geocentric Universe
(Ancient Greece, c.85-165)

12. Geocentric Universe: Take 1

13. Geocentric Universe: Take 1
Earth at the
Center

14. Geocentric Universe: Take 1
Earth at the
Center
Planets & Stars
Orbit on Circles

15. Image:Tunc Tezel via APOD
Problem! Retrograde Motion

16. Animation:Tommy Huerta & Craig McConnel

17. Geocentric Universe: Take 2

18. Earth at the
Center
Geocentric Universe: Take 2

19. Earth at the
Center
Epicycles
Orbit on
Circles
Geocentric Universe: Take 2

20. Earth at the
Center
Planets & Stars
Orbit on Epicycles
Epicycles
Orbit on
Circles
Geocentric Universe: Take 2

21. Geocentric Universe: Take 3

22. Geocentric Universe: Take 4...

23. Image: Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1st Edition

24. Animation:Tommy Huerta & Craig McConnel

25. Image:Tunc Tezel via APOD

26. Copernicus:
Heliocentric Universe
(mid-1500s)
Image: Copernicus 1543

27. The Copernican
Revolution
Image: Prenhall.com, animation by StarryNight software Image: ESA, illustration by Medialab

28. The Copernican
Revolution
Not the Center!
Image: Prenhall.com, animation by StarryNight software Image: ESA, illustration by Medialab

29. The Copernican
Revolution
Not the Center!
Image: Prenhall.com, animation by StarryNight software Image: ESA, illustration by Medialab

30. Copernican Principle

31. Copernican Principle
we do not occupy
a special place
in the Universe

32. we do not occupy
a special place
in the Universe
Image: EL Wright, UCLA;The COBE Project; DIRBE; NASA Image: NASA/JPL/R. Hurt - Caltech

33. we do not occupy
a special place
in the Universe
Image: EL Wright, UCLA;The COBE Project; DIRBE; NASA Image: NASA/JPL/R. Hurt - Caltech

34. we do not occupy
a special place
in the Universe
Image: EL Wright, UCLA;The COBE Project; DIRBE; NASA Image: NASA/JPL/R. Hurt - Caltech

35. “Spiral Nebulae” and “Island Universes”
(late 1700s)

36. 75 feet
Image: NASA

37. 75 feet
Image: NASA

38. 75 feet
Image: NASA
23 meters

42. Movie: Produced by Cosmus, from SDSS data

44. Illustration: NASA and A. Field (STScI)

45. Movie: Produced by Cosmus, from SDSS data

46. Cosmic Microwave Background
Image: NASA

47. Cosmic Microwave Background
Image: ESA

48. Greg Poole, GiggleZ Simulation82 million light year slice

49. Selected Cosmic
Mysteries
Greg Poole, GiggleZ Simulation82 million light year slice

50. d
a
r
k
m
a
tter

51. image: starlight-spinning.tumblr.com

52. Vera Rubin photo: Mark Godfrey
Galaxy Photo: NASA

53. galaxy motion:
expected
galaxy motion:
observed

54. Image: dark matter: K. Mack;Andromeda Galaxy: GALEX, JPL-Caltech, NASA
Dark Matter

56. “Matter tells spacetime how to curve;
spacetime tells matter how to move.”
-JA Wheeler

57. Image: NASA/ESA

59. d
a
r
k
en
er
g
y

60. Will the Universe
Expand Forever?

61. Illustration: NASA, ESA and STScI (altered)

62. Illustration: NASA, ESA and STScI (altered)

63. Illustration: NASA, ESA and STScI (altered)

64. Illustration: NASA, ESA and STScI (altered)

67. Dark Energy

68. Dark Energy
(because we have no idea what it is)

69. dark matter

70. dark energydark energy
dark energydark energy

72. Pale Blue Dot
Image: NASA,Voyager 1

73. “The Earth is a very small
stage in a vast cosmic arena.”
-Carl Sagan