The Children of Earth

1. The Children of Earth SOAR Fall 2004

2. The Origin Of Metals Only elements lighter than iron can be made in living stars. Light elements from living stars Heavy elements from …

3. Giant Stars Have layers fusing different elements

4. Iron • Iron is the most stable element • ABSORBS energy in fusion • ABSORBS energy in fission • When iron core begins to fuse • energy is absorbed by reaction • core cools … contracts • outer layers begin to fall in • star implodes … outer layers bounce off dense inner core • star explodes …

5. Supernova

6. Crab Nebula Capella in Auriga Supernova Observed in 1054 by Chinese & Anazazi Castor in Gemini Pollux in Gemini M1 Aldebaran in Taurus Procyon in Canis Minor Rigel in Orion Sirius in Canis Major

7. Supernova Remnant Is still expanding … still exploding! Crab Nebula “Guest Star” in, Taurus noted in Chinese records in 1054 and on rock overhang in Chaco Cañon, NM.

8. Crab Nebula • VLT Optical Image

9. Crab Pulsar Neutron star pulses! Initially called “LGM” for “little green men.”

10. Crab Nebula Core of exploded star is a neutron star

11. Inner Crab The first pulsar discovered! Combined HST optical and Chandra X-ray images

12. Pulsars • Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars • Emission “beamed” by magnetic fields • Bright when beam points at Earth • Stars “spin-up” during collapse like spinning skater

13. Eta Carinae A star 100 times the mass of Sol …in death throes

14. Southern Sky from CTIO • SMC  Cen • 1.5 m telescope  Cen • LMC   • Southern Cross (Crux)   • 4 m telescope AOD observes here! • Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory La Serena, Chile

15. Starry Night View • Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory La Serena, Chile

16. Eta Carinae “… Bathe yourself in the ocean of matter; plunge into it where it is deepest and most violent; struggle in its currents and drink of its waters. “For it cradled you long ago in your preconscious existence; and it is that ocean that will raise you up to God.” Teilhard de Chardin

17. The Milky Way Galaxy Sun ~ 30,000 ly from center Galactic Year ~225,000,000 yr (Sol is ~22) M87, a galaxy much like the Milky Way http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-1999/pr-18-99.html

18. Solar System • Sun & Planets formed from interstellar clouds collapsing under gravity

19. Solar System 1 AU = 150,000,000 km = 93,000,000 mi Inner Worlds: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars You Are Here! Positions at 17:00 UT, 1/23/04

20. Solar System SS width ~ 12,000,000,000 km ~ 7,500,000,000 mi Outer Worlds: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto Positions at 17:00 UT, 1/23/04

21. Contents of the Solar System Planet Mosaic • Planets • Mercury (y) • Venus (v) • Earth () • Mars (m) • Jupiter (j) • Saturn (t) • Uranus (U or u) • Neptune (n) • Pluto (P) Sun and Planets to scale

22. Asteroids Gaspra • Mostly beyond Earth’s orbit Ida & Dactyl An asteroid with a moon!

23. Asteroids • Come close to Earth • Can hit Earth

24. Asteroid Impacts • Cause of mass extinctions?

25. Chicxulub Impact Mapped by gravitational anomalies On Edge of Yucatan Peninsula Earth c. 65 million BCE • Demise of the dinosaurs? http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/SIC/impact_cratering/Chicxulub/Chicx_title.html

26. Comets: Dirty Snowballs Comet Halley from ESA’s Giotto, 1986 Comet Explorer, c. 2025 Comet Hale-Bopp & N. American Nebula 3/97 Col Drusciè Observatory, Cortina d'Ampezzo - Italy

27. Life’s History Earth is 4.5 by old Earliest life 3.5 by ago: stromatolites (cyanobacteria) Now Then

28. Life At High Temperature Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park Cyanobacteria … the most ancient life on Earth

29. Life In The Dark The Deep Sea Vents Life utilizes minerals from Earth’s interior

30. Life’s History Evolution of complex life only in last 570 million years! Most evolution has taken place ONLY in last 3% of the age of the universe!

31. Life In The Air Sandhill Cranes, Bosque Del Apache, Socorro, NM The last of the dinosaurs!

32. Abundance Of Life Sulfide-digesting bacteria on rocks Microbe from Antarctic Ice • Life survives in every ecosystem on Earth … even within ice and rocks!

33. Life Everywhere On Land

34. Life From The Rocks Shrub on the desert pavement Lichens: symbiotic associations of algae and fungi

35. Trees From The Rocks

36. Life On The Trees

37. Given Hydrogen, Gravity & 15 Billion Years The Universe Made Pace Puppies! Kiva

38. Touching Earth Whenever your feet touch Earth you know they are touching Where something has died or been born. Antler Earth Prayers

39. And All Is From The Stars! Except the hydrogen which is from the first millisecond after the Big bang! Giant stars produced Fe, Zn, Au, Ag, Hg, Pb, I, Ba ... Sun-sized stars produced C, O, N …

40. Human History Humanoids appeared about a million years ago … 0.04% of Earth’s age, 0.007% of Universe’s age

41. Human History Written human history covers about last 10,000 years (since the glaciers melted) 0.0004% of Earth’s age, 0.00007% of Universe’s age If the history of the universe were a year, Humans would show up in the last ½ hour before midnight on December 31!

42. Psalm 8 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

43. Genesis “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” And we are all made of star stuff!

44. Caring for Earth’s Creatures “The concern here is with the possibility of a theology of nature, that is, using the picture of reality coming to us from postmodern science as a way to reimagine the relationship between God and the world…

45. Caring for Earth’s Creatures “…to consider ourselves as inspirited bodies, profoundly interrelated with all other such bodies and yet having the distinction of shared responsibility with God for the well being of our planet.” Sally McFague The Body of God

46. God and the Universe “Matter and spirit: these were no longer two things, but two states of one and the same cosmic stuff.” Teilhard de Chardin