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Chapter 24: Problem 16

How did the discovery of the Hubble Law reinforce the idea that the spiral "nebulae" could not be part of the Milky Way?

Short Answer

Expert verified
The discovery of Hubble's Law proved that spiral nebulae are moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distances. This scale of distance and speed indicated that these nebulae were separate galaxy entities, strongly reinforcing the idea that they are not part of the Milky Way.

Step by step solution

01

Understand Hubble's Law

Hubble's Law, named after Edwin Hubble, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance. In simple terms, the farther a galaxy is from us, the faster it is moving away from us.
02

Explore Spiral Nebulae

Spiral nebulae are celestial objects that exhibit a spiral structure. These include galaxies (like the Milky Way) and other distant celestial bodies.
03

Connection between spiral nebulae and Milky Way

Before Hubble's law, there was a debate about whether the spiral nebulae were just nearby celestial objects within the Milky Way galaxy, or they were extremely distant galaxies of their own. The latter is true.
04

How Hubble's Law reinforced the idea

Hubble, through his observations and law, was able to prove that the aforementioned nebulae are moving away from us at a speed that is proportional to their distance. This strongly suggested that these spiral nebulae were separate galaxy entities - much farther than initially believed - and not part of our own Milky Way galaxy.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

What is the Hubble law? How can it be used to determine distances?

Describe what sorts of observations you might make to search for as-yet- undiscovered galaxies in our Local Group. How is it possible that such galaxies might still remain to be discovered? In what part of the sky would these galaxies be located? What sorts of observations might reveal these galaxies?

What is the Tully-Fisher relation? How is it used for measuring distances? Can it be used for galaxies of all kinds? Why or why not?

Describe what voids are and what they tell us about the largescale structure of the universe.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using the various standard candle distance indicators to obtain extragalactic distances.
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