American astronomer edwin hubble in 1929 discovered that the recession rate of galaxies was directly proportional to their distance . this is what we call the hubble s law which defines that v h 美国天文学家哈勃于1929年发现星系退行速度与其距离存在著正比的关系,即所谓哈勃定律:退行速度v h
We know how fast the galaxies are receding from us . so , if we run the movie of the universe backward , we can calculate how long it takes for the galaxies to get back together . from this , the age of the universe is about 15 billion years 1 . 5 x 10 利用大爆炸理论亦可以估算宇宙的年,由于我们知道星系的退行速度,只要我们来一个倒镜,计算所有星系回到原点所需的时间,便可得出宇宙的年,结果是大约有150亿年1 . 5x10
M s . if the motions of the galaxies were random , then we would expect that about half of them will recede from us while half of them will be approaching us . however , hubble found that not only most of them are receding from us , but also the receding velocity is directly proportional to the distance away from us 假若星系运动的方向是随机的,那么应该有一半的星系正在远离我们,另一半则接近我们,但结果实在出人意表,哈勃发现不单绝大部分星系正在远离我们,而且它们的退行速度和与地球的距离成正比,这个关系可以下式表示:
There are two major errors . the first one is the error occurred in measuring v . although astronomers can locate v of individual galaxy accurately through the spectrum and the doppler s effect , owing to the gravitational pull exerted from neighbouring galaxies and clusters of galaxies , v is not wholly determined by the expansion of the universe 有两个主要的误差:第一个是测量退行速度的误差,虽然天文学家利用光谱及多普勒效应,已经很准确地找到个别星系的退行速度,但由于与邻近星系及星系团的引力作用,这个退行速度便不完全是因宇宙膨