Classifying Galaxies
This is a statement about
galaxies: " All ellipticals are galaxies, but not all galaxies are elliptical".
After you learn how to classify galaxies, you will be able to explain what this
statement means. When scientists see objects in nature that share some features, but not
others, they find that grouping, or classifying them is a good idea. First they
must decide what scheme or plan they will use to decide to which group something belongs.
Your answers to questions below will
come from the online lesson: Classifying Galaxies. Start with the
"Student Lesson" and the blinking message : "Start Galaxy exploration
here"
What is a galaxy?1)______________________________________________________________ In the 1920's, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble was able to gather pictures of many galaxies. He noticed that they were not all alike. He decided to group, or classify them. To group the galaxies in the photographs he studied, he could have used size, color, shape or any other feature that he noticed . Hubble decided to classify galaxies by their shape or form.
Edwin Hubble looked
at many galaxy pictures and decided to divide galaxies into three types according to the
way they looked. He used letters to represent these three types of galaxies. 2)The letter
"E" meant_________________galaxies, 3)"S" meant
_________________galaxies, and 4)"SB" meant ___________________galaxies.
Galaxies had so
many shapes that Hubble found that three types were not enough. He had to further break
down these three according to a slight variation in shape between each type of galaxy in
each category.
For
the "E" or 5)_________________galaxies, he used the amount of flattening or
6)_____________, from E0( E zero) to E5, to put the galaxies into smaller groups.
For
the "S" or 7)____________ galaxies, he used how tightly the arms were wound
around the bright 8)_______________, to further classify these galaxies as Sa, Sb, or Sc.
For
the "SB" or 9)___________ galaxies, he used the increased openness of the
10)__________to group these galaxies as SBa, SBb, or SBc.
Edwin Hubble took all these ideas and presented them all together in a simple diagram for classifying galaxies. This diagram is called the Hubble Tuning Fork Diagram. Most galaxies fall into one of his groups, according to how they look. Draw a shape for each of the types of galaxies below. Draw it above the letters which he used to identify the shapes. (#11-19)
Sa Sb Sc
E0 E5 S0
SBa SBb SBc
20) From the information you have seen today, explain the following statement: "All ellipticals are galaxies, but not all galaxies are elliptical". Put your answer below.