2 The Observable Universe

The observations relevant to cosmology are mainly astronomical. The speed of light
is finite, and therefore, when we look far away, we also look back in time. The
universe has been transparent since recombination, so more than 99.99% of the
history of the universe is out there for us to see.
The most important channel of observation is the electromagnetic radiation
(light, radio waves, X rays, etc.) coming from space. We also observe particles,
cosmic rays (protons, electrons, nuclei) and neutrinos coming from space. Accord-
ing to theory, there are also gravitational waves coming from space, but we have
not been able to observe them so far. In addition, the composition of matter in the
solar system has cosmological significance.

Big bang and the steady-state theory

Fifty years ago observational data on cosmology was rather sparse. It consisted
mainly of the redshifts of galaxies, which were understood to be due to the expansion
of space. At that time there was still room for different basic theories of cosmology.
The main competitors were the steady-state theory and the Big Bang theory.
The steady-state theory is also known as the theory of continuous creation, since
it postulates that matter is constantly being created out of nothing, so that the
average density of the universe stays the same despite the expansion. According to
the steady-state theory the universe has always existed and will always exist and
will always look essentially the same, so that there is no overall evolution.
According to the Big Bang theory, the universe had a beginning at a finite time
ago in the past; the universe started at very high density, and as the universe expands
its density goes down. In the Big Bang theory the universe evolves; it was different
in the past, and it keeps changing in the future. The name Big Bang was given
to this theory by Fred Hoyle, one of the advocates of the steady-state theory, to
ridicule it. Hoyle preferred the steady-state theory on philosophical grounds; to
him, an eternal universe with no evolution was preferable to an evolving one with a
mysterious beginning.
Both theories treated the observed expansion of the universe according to Ein-
steins theory of General Relativity. The steady-state theory added to it a continuous
creation of matter, whereas the Big Bang theory had all the creation in the begin-
ning.1
The accumulation of further observational data led to the abandonment of the
steady-state theory and the Big Bang theory has become the accepted basic theory,
the framework, or paradigm of cosmology. By today the evidence has become so
compelling that it appears extremely unlikely that the Big Bang theory could be
wrong in any essential way. There are still, of course, many open questions on the
details, and the very beginning is still completely unknown.
1
Thus the steady-state theory postulates a modification to known laws of physics, this continuous
creation of matter out of nothing. The Big Bang theory, on the other hand, is based only on
known laws of physics, but it leads to an evolution which, when extended backwards in time, leads
eventually to extreme conditions where the known laws of physics can not be expected to hold any
more. Whether there was creation or something else there, is beyond the realm of the Big Bang
theory. Thus the Big Bang theory can be said to be incomplete in this sense, in contrast to the
steady-state theory being complete in covering all of the history of the universe.

9
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 10

The observations, which led to the abandonment of the steady-state theory, were
1) the cosmic microwave background (predicted by the Big Bang theory, problematic
for steady-state), 2) the evolution of cosmic radio sources (they were more powerful
in the past, or there were more of them), and 3) the abundances of light elements
and their isotopes (predicted correctly by the Big Bang theory).

Electromagnetic channel
Consider first the electromagnetic channel of observation. Although the interstellar
space is transparent (except for radio waves longer than 100 m, absorbed by inter-
stellar ionized gas, and short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation, absorbed by neutral
gas), Earths atmosphere is opaque except for two wavelength ranges, the opti-
cal window ( = 300800 nm), which includes visible light, and the radio window
( = 1 mm20 m). The atmosphere is partially transparent to infrared radiation,
which is absorbed by water molecules in the air; high altitude and dry air favors
infrared astronomy. Accordingly, the traditional branches of astronomy are optical
astronomy and radio astronomy. Observations at other wavelengths have become
possible only during the past few decades, from space (satellites) or at very high
altitude in the atmosphere (planes, rockets, balloons).
From optical astronomy we know that there are stars in space. The stars are
grouped into galaxies. There are different kinds of galaxies: 1) irregular, 2) elliptical,
and 3) flat disks or spirals. Our own galaxy (the Galaxy, or Milky Way galaxy) is a
disk. The plane of the disk can be seen (at a dark night) as a faint bandthe milky
wayacross the sky.
Notable nearby galaxies are the Andromeda galaxy (M31) and the Magellanic
clouds (LMC, Large Magellanic Cloud, and SMC, Small Magellanic Cloud). These
are the only other galaxies that are visible to the naked eye. The Magellanic clouds
(as well as the center of the Milky Way) lie too far south however to be seen from
Finland. The number of galaxies that can be seen with powerful telescopes is many
billions (billion = 109 ).
Other observable objects include dust clouds, which hide the stars behind them,
and gas clouds. Gas clouds absorb starlight at certain frequencies, which excite the
gas atoms to higher energy states. As the atoms return to lower energy states they
then emit photons at the corresponding wavelength. Thus we can determine from
the spectrum of light what elements the gas cloud is made of. In the same way the
composition of stellar surfaces can be determined.
The earliest cosmological observation was that the night sky is dark. If the
universe were eternal and infinitely large, unchanging and similar everywhere, our
eye would eventually meet the surface of a star in every direction. Thus the entire
night sky would be as bright as the Sun. This is called the Olbers paradox.

Redshift and the Hubble law

Modern cosmology originated by the observation by Edwin Hubble (in about 1929)
that the redshifts of galaxies were proportional to their distance. The light from
distant galaxies is redder (has longer wavelength) when it arrives here. This redshift
can be determined with high accuracy from the spectral lines of the galaxy. These
lines are caused by transitions between different energy states of atoms, and thus
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 11

their original wavelengths 0 are known. The redshift z is defined as

0
z= or 1+z = (1)
0 0
where is the observed wavelength. The redshift is observed to be independent of
wavelength. The proportionality relation

cz = H0 r (2)

is called the Hubble law, and the proportionality constant H0 the Hubble constant.
Here r is the distance to the galaxy, z its redshift and c the speed of light.
While the redshift can be determined with high accuracy, it is difficult to deter-
mine the distance r. The distance determinations are usually based on the cosmic
distance ladder. This means a series of relative distance determinations between
more nearby and faraway objects. The first step of the ladder is made of nearby
stars, whose absolute distance can be determined from their parallax, their appar-
ent motion on the sky due to our motion around the Sun. The other steps require
standard candles, classes of objects with the same absolute luminosity (radiated
power), so that their relative distances are inversely related to the square roots of
their brightness or apparent luminosity (received flux density). Several steps are
needed, since objects that can be found close by are too faint to be observed from
very far away.
An important standard candle is a class of variable stars called Cepheids. They
are so bright that they can be observed (with the Hubble Space Telescope) in other
galaxies as far away as the Virgo cluster of galaxies, more than 10 Mpc away. There
are many Cepheids in the LMC, and the distance to the LMC2 (about 50 kpc) is an
important step in the distance ladder.
Errors (inaccuracies) accumulate from step to step, so that cosmological dis-
tances, and thus the value of the Hubble constant, is not known accurately. It was a
stated goal of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to determine the Hubble constant
with 10% accuracy. As a result of some 10 years of observations they give as their
final result [2]
H0 = 72 8km/s/Mpc.
This uncertainty of distance scale is reflected in many cosmological quantities.
It is customary to give these quantities multiplied by the appropriate power of h,
defined by
H0 = h 100km/s/Mpc. (3)
Thus h = 0.72 0.08 (the HST value).
For small redshifts (z  1) the redshift can be understood as the Doppler effect
due to the relative motion of the source and the observer. The distant galaxies are
thus receding from us with the velocity

v = cz. (4)

The further out they are, the faster they are receding. Astronomers often report the
redshift in velocity units (giving cz instead of z).
2
Alves 2004 [1]: The average of 14 recent measurements of the distance to the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC) implies a true distance modulus of 18.50 0.02 mag. This corresponds to a distance
d = 50.1 0.5 kpc. (This was also the value used by HST.)
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 12

According to Big Bang theory, this is however not the proper way to understand
the redshift. The galaxies are not actually moving, but the distances between the
galaxies are increasing because the intergalactic space between the galaxies is ex-
panding, in the manner described by general relativity. We shall later derive the
redshift from general relativity. It turns out that equations (2) and (4) hold only
at the limit z  1, and the general result, r(z), relating distance r and redshift z
is more complicated. In particular, the redshift begins to grow much faster than
distance for large z, reaching infinity at finite r. However, the redshift is directly
related to the expansion. The easiest way to understand the cosmological redshift is
that the wavelength of traveling light expands with the universe. Thus the universe
has expanded by a factor 1 + z during the time light traveled from an object with
redshift z to us.
The largest observed redshifts of galaxies and quasars are about z 6. Thus
the universe has expanded by a factor of seven while the observed light has been
on its way. When the light left the galaxy, the age of the universe was only about
1 billion years. At that time the first galaxies were just being formed. This upper
limit in the observations is however not due to there being no earlier galaxies, but
rather that these are so faint due to both the large distance and the large redshift.
There may be some galaxies with a redshift greater than 10. NASA is planning a
new space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope3 (JWST), which would be
able to observe these.
The Hubble constant is called a constant, since it is constant as a function of
position. It is however a function of time, H(t), in the cosmological time scale. H(t)
is called the Hubble parameter, and its present value is called the Hubble constant,
H0 . In cosmology, it is customary to denote the present values of quantities with
the subscript 0. Thus H0 = H(t0 ).
The galaxies are not exactly at rest in the expanding space. Each galaxy has
its own peculiar motion vgal , caused by the gravity of nearby mass concentrations
(other galaxies). Neighboring galaxies fall towards each other, orbit each other etc.
Thus the redshift of an individual galaxy is the sum of the cosmic and the peculiar
redshift.
cz = H0 r + vgal (when z  1). (5)
Usually only the redshift is known precisely. Typically vgal is of the order 500
km/s. (In large galaxy clusters, where galaxies orbit each other, it can be several
thousand km/s; but then one can take the average redshift of the cluster.) For
faraway galaxies, H0 r  vgal , and the redshift can be used as a measure of distance.
It also tells the age of the universe at the observed time. Large z young universe.

Horizon
Because of the finite speed of light and the finite age of the universe, only a finite
part of the universe is observable. Our horizon is at that distance from which light
has just had time to reach us during the entire age of the universe. Were it not for
the expansion of the universe, the distance to this horizon rhor would equal the age of
the universe, 1215 billion light years (35004500 Mpc). The expansion complicates
the situation; we shall calculate the horizon distance later. For large distances the
3
www.jwst.nasa.gov
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 13

redshift grows faster than (2). At the horizon z , i.e., rhor = r(z = ).
The universe has been transparent only for z < 1100 (after recombination), so the
practical horizon, i.e., the limit to what we can see, lies already at z 1100. The
distances r(z = 1100) and r(z = ) are close to each other; z = 3 lies about halfway
from here to horizon.
Thus the question of whether the universe is finite or infinite in space is some-
what meaningless. In any case we can only observe a finite region, enclosed in the
sphere with radius rhor . Sometimes the word universe is used to denote just this
observable part of the whole universe. Then we can say that the universe contains
some 1011 or 1012 galaxies and about 1023 stars. Over cosmological time scales the
horizon of course recedes and parts of the universe which are beyond our present
horizon become observable. (However, if the expansion is accelerating as the obser-
vations now seem to suggest, the observable region is already close to its maximum
extent, and in the distant future galaxies which are now observable will disappear
from our sight due to their increasing redshift).

Optical astronomy and the large scale structure

There is a large body of data relevant to cosmology from optical astronomy. Count-
ing the number of stars and galaxies we can estimate the matter density they con-
tribute to the universe. Counting the number density of galaxies as a function of
their distance, we can try to determine whether the geometry of space deviates from
Euclidean (as it might, according to general relativity).
From the different redshifts of galaxies within the same galaxy cluster we obtain
their relative motions, which reflect the gravitating mass within the system. The
mass estimates for galaxy clusters obtained this way are much larger than those
obtained by counting the visible stars and galaxies in the cluster, pointing to the
existence of dark matter.
From the spectral lines of stars and gas clouds we can determine the relative
amounts of different elements and their isotopes in the universe.
The distribution of galaxies in space and their relative velocities tell us about
the large scale structure of the universe. The galaxies are not distributed uniformly.
There are galaxy groups and clusters. Our own galaxy belongs to a small group
of galaxies called the Local Group. The Local Group consists of three large spiral
galaxies: M31 (the Andromeda galaxy), M33, and the Milky Way, and about 30
smaller (dwarf) galaxies. The nearest large cluster is the Virgo Cluster. The group-
ing of galaxies into clusters is not as strong as the grouping of stars into galaxies.
Rather the distribution of galaxies is just uneven; with denser and more sparse re-
gions. The dense regions can be flat structures (walls) which enclose regions with
a much lower galaxy density (voids). The densest concentrations are called galaxy
clusters, but most galaxies are not part of any well defined cluster.

Radio astronomy
The sky looks very different to radio astronomy. There are many strong radio sources
very far away. These are galaxies which are optically barely observable. They are
distributed isotropically, i.e., there are equal numbers of them in every direction, but
there are more of them far away (at z > 1) than close by (z < 1). The isotropy is
evidence of the homogeneity of the universe at the largest scalesthere is structure
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 14

only at smaller scales. The dependence on distance is a time evolution effect. It

shows that the universe is not static or stationary, but evolves with time. Some
galaxies are strong radio sources when they are young, but become weaker with age
by a factor of more than 1000.
Cold gas clouds can be mapped using the 21 cm spectral line of hydrogen. The
ground state (n = 1) of hydrogen is split into two very close energy levels depending
on whether the proton and electron spins are parallel or antiparallel (the hyperfine
structure). The separation of these energy levels, the hyperfine structure constant,
is 5.9 eV, corresponding to a photon wavelength of 21 cm, i.e., radio waves. The
redshift of this spectral line shows that redshift is independent of wavelength (the
same for radio waves and visible light), as it should be according to standard theory.

Cosmic microwave background

At microwave frequencies the sky is dominated by the cosmic microwave background
(CMB), which is highly isotropic, i.e., the microwave sky appears glowing uniformly
without any features, unless our detectors are extremely sensitive to small contrasts.
The electromagnetic spectrum of the CMB is the black body spectrum with a tem-
perature of T0 = 2.725 0.001 K (COBE 1999 [3]). In fact, it follows the theoretical
black body spectrum better than anything else we can observe or produce. There
is no other plausible explanation for its origin than that it was produced in the Big
Bang. It shows that the universe was homogeneous and in thermal equilibrium at the
time (z = 1100) when this radiation originated. The redshift of the photons causes
the temperature of the CMB to fall as (1 + z)1 , so that its original temperature
was about T = 3000 K.
The state of a system in thermal equilibrium is determined by just a small number
of thermodynamic variables, in this case the temperature and density (or densities,
when there are several conserved particle numbers). The observed temperature
of the CMB and the observed density of the present universe allows us to fix the
evolution of the temperature and the density of the universe, which then allows us
to calculate the sequence of events during the Big Bang. That the early universe
was hot and in thermal equilibrium is a central part of the Big Bang paradigm, and
it is often called the Hot Big Bang theory to spell this out.
With sensitive instruments a small anisotropy can be observed in the microwave
sky. This is dominated by the dipole anisotropy (one side of the sky is slightly
hotter and the other side colder), with an amplitude of 3.346 0.017 mK, or
T /T0 = 0.0012. This is a Doppler effect due to the motion of the observer, i.e.,
the motion of our Solar System with respect to the radiating matter at our horizon.
The velocity of this motion is v = (T /T0 ) c = 368 2 km/s and it is directed
towards the constellation of Leo (R.A. 11h 8m 50s , Dec. 6 370 ), near the autumnal
equinox (where the ecliptic and the equator cross on the sky) [4]. Its is due to two
components, the motion of the Sun around the center of the Galaxy, and the peculiar
motion of the Galaxy due to the gravitational pull of nearby galaxy clusters4 .
4
Sometimes it is asked whether there is a contradiction with special relativity heredoesnt
CMB provide an absolute reference frame? There is no contradiction. The relativity principle
just says that the laws of physics are the same in the different reference frames. It does not say
that systems cannot have reference frames which are particularly natural for that system, e.g., the
center-of-mass frame or the laboratory frame. For road transportation, the surface of the earth is
a natural reference frame. In cosmology, the CMB gives us a good natural reference frameit is
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 15

When we subtract the effect of this motion from the observations (and look away
from the plane of the Galaxyour Galaxy also emits microwave radiation, but with
a nonthermal spectrum) the true anisotropy of the CMB remains, with an amplitude
of about 3 105 , or 80 microkelvins.5 This anisotropy gives a picture of the small
density variations in the early universe, the seeds of galaxies. Theories of structure
formation have to match the small inhomogeneity of the order 104 at z 1100 and
the structure observed today (z = 0).

Miscellaneous
The highest energy region of the electromagnetic spectrum is occupied by rays.
Space-based -ray observatories have discovered powerful Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB)
on the sky. These are short events lasting from a fraction of a second to a few sec-
onds or minutes. They are observed about once per day, and appear distributed
isotropically on the sky. The isotropic distribution suggests that they would be at
cosmological distances (further out than our own or nearby galaxies). This has now
been confirmed by the identification of some GRBs with galaxies with high red-
shifts (z > 1). This means that the bursts must have extremely high energies. The
longer duration (longer than a second) GRBs appear to be related to particularly
powerful supernova events. The shorter duration (less than a second) are possibly
due to collisions of neutron stars with each other or with black holes.
Quasars (Quasistellar Objects, QSOs) are the most powerful continuously radi-
ating objects in the universe. Thus the most-distant (earliest) objects observed in
the universe are mostly quasars. The highest observed power is about 1041 W. At
first quasars were considered different from galaxies since they looked like point-like
objects. In photographs they looked like stars, but their redshifts revealed their
huge distances and thus their huge power outputs. Now better observations have
revealed host galaxies around several quasars. It has been concluded that quasars
are powerfully radiating galactic nuclei, and are related to some more close-by galax-
ies (Seyfert galaxies), whose nuclei are also fairly powerful sources of radiation. To-
gether these objects are called Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Quasars are powerful
sources at many different wavelengths (radio, optical, X-ray). Some of them be-
long to the radio sources mentioned earlier, others are radio quiet. There are more
quasars at large distances (in the past, z > 1) than nearer to us (later, z < 1). This
means that quasars grow fainter as they age; they become more ordinary galaxies.
The power source of an AGN is thought to be a very large black hole (with
m = 108 M or so) at the center of the galaxy, into which surrounding matter is
falling. As it approaches the hole, this matter is heated up and begins to radiate.
AGNs quiet down over cosmological time scales as the black hole gradually cleans
up the surrounding regions.
closely related to the center-of-mass frame of the observable part of the universe, or rather, a part of
it which is close to the horizon (the last scattering surface). There is nothing particularly absolute
here; the different parts of the plasma from which the CMB originates are moving with different
velocities (part of the 105 anisotropy is due to these velocity variations); we just take the average
of what we see. If there is something surprising here, it is that these relative velocities are so small,
of the order of just a few km/s; reflecting the astonishing homogeneity of the early universe over
large scales. We shall return to the question, whether these are natural initial conditions, later,
when we discuss inflation.
5
The numbers refer to the standard deviation of the CMB temperature on the sky. The hottest
and coldest spots deviate some 4 or 5 times this amount from the average temperature.
2 THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE 16

Cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are protons, electrons, and nuclei coming from space. Some of them
have extremely high energies, even above 1020 eV. These energies are higher than
what can be reached in particle accelerators (LHC 1013 eV). It is thought that
cosmic rays originate from supernovae (exploding stars). Since they are charged par-
ticles their paths are warped by galactic magnetic fields, so their arrival direction
does not point towards their origin. The cosmic rays are about 90% protons, 10%
other nuclei, and 1% electrons. All elements up to uranium are represented. Espe-
cially the origin of the very highest energy (E > 1020 eV) cosmic rays is a mystery.
Because of their high energy their collision cross section with CMB photons be-
comes large, preventing them from traveling over large intergalactic distances. But
our own, or nearby, galaxies do not seem to contain suitable sources which could
accelerate these particles to such energies.

Distance, luminosity, and magnitude

In astronomy, the radiated power L of an object, e.g., a star or a galaxy, is called its
absolute luminosity. The flux density l (power per unit area) of its radiation here
where we observe it, is called its apparent luminosity. Assuming Euclidean geometry,
and that the object radiates isotropically, these are related as
L
l= , (6)
4d2
where d is our distance to the object. For example, the Sun has

L = 3.9 1026 W d = 1.496 1011 m l = 1370 W/m2 .

The ancients classified the stars visible to the naked eye into six classes according
to their brightness. The concept of magnitude in modern astronomy is defined so that
it roughly matches this ancient classification, but it is a real number, not an integer.
The magnitude scale is a logarithmic scale, so that a difference of 5 magnitudes
corresponds to a factor of 100 in luminosity.6 The absolute magnitude M and the
apparent magnitude m of an object are defined as
L
M 2.5 lg
L0
l
m 2.5 lg , (7)
l0
where L0 and l0 are reference luminosities. There are actually different magnitude
scales corresponding to different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, with dif-
ferent reference luminosities. The bolometric magnitude and luminosity refer to
the power or flux integrated over all frequencies, whereas the visual magnitude
and luminosity refer only to the visible light. In the bolometric magnitude scale
L0 = 3.0 1028 W. The reference luminosity l0 for the apparent scale is chosen so in
relation to the absolute scale that a star whose distance is d = 10 pc has m = M .
6
Thus a difference of 1 magnitude corresponds to a factor 1001/5 = 2.512.
REFERENCES 17

From this, (6), and (7) follows that the difference between the apparent and absolute
magnitudes are related to distance as

m M = 5 + 5 lg d(pc) (8)

This difference is called the distance modulus, and often astronomers just quote
the distance modulus, when they have determined the distance to an object. If
two objects are known to have the same absolute magnitude, but the apparent
magnitudes differ by 5, we can conclude that the fainter one is 10 times farther
away (assuming Euclidean geometry).
For the Sun we have

M = 4.79 (visual)
M = 4.72 (bolometric)
and (9)
m = 26.78 (visual) ,

where the apparent magnitude is as seen from Earth. Note that the smaller the
magnitude, the brighter the object.

References
[1] D.R. Alves, New Astron. Rev. 48, 659 (2004), astro-ph/0310673.

[2] W.L. Freedman et al, Astrophys. J. 553, 47 (2001).

[3] J.C. Mather et al. (COBE), Astrophys. J. 512, 511 (1999).

[4] C.L. Bennet et al. (WMAP), Astrophys. J. Supp. 148, 1 (conversion to equato-
rial coordinates www.astro.utu.fi/EGal/CooC/CooC6.html)