Pretend that you are an astronomer working shortly after Edwin Hubble made his startling discovery. Now that you know the “nebulae” are actually other galaxies like our own, you must come up with a way to classify the galaxies.
Exercise 1: Look at the following galaxies. Divide them into groups based on features they have in common. There is no set number of groups.
Click one of the links in the table below to use the Get Fields tool to look up each galaxy. You will see a picture of the field the galaxy is in. Because galaxies tend to cluster together, some of the fields have more than one large and interesting galaxy. In all the other frames, the largest galaxy should be obvious. When you click another link, the new field will appear in the same window. You may want to print the fields out, so you can compare the galaxies side-by-side.
Use this SkyServer workbook to keep track of your groups.
| Run | Camcol | Field |
|---|---|---|
| 752 | 1 | 244 |
| 2662 | 4 | 243 |
| 752 | 1 | 331 |
| 1737 | 6 | 11 |
| 756 | 4 | 198 |
| 2738 | 2 | 196 |
| 752 | 1 | 432 |
| 3325 | 3 | 319 |
| 3325 | 2 | 216 |
| 3325 | 2 | 215 (just left of center) |
| 3325 | 3 | 230 (2 galaxies) |
| 2738 | 3 | 122 (2 nice galaxies) |
| 3325 | 3 | 352 |
| 3325 | 1 | 356 |
| 3325 | 1 | 359 |
Now, find another group and partner up with them to compare your results.