This online module includes three activities: Spiral Shapes, Elliptical Slide, and Imagine Irregular. By completing these activities, students discover that galaxies come in different shapes and learn about the process used by astronomers to... (View More) classify them. Additional background information is provided in the Galaxy Gossip and Galaxy Gallery sections of this module. Students may complete this activity independently or in small groups. This activity should be completed before Galaxy Games. Detailed teacher pages, identified as Teaching Tips on the activity title page, provide science background information, lesson plan ideas, related resources, and alignment with national education standards. This activity is part of the online exploration "Galaxies Galore, Games and More" available on the Amazing Space website. (View Less)

Using real data from NASA's Fermi satellite, students determine the size and energy of an active galaxy flare region. This activity includes background information for teachers, student worksheets, procedures, adaptations, extensions, an assessment... (View More) rubric, and related resources. This is activity 3 of 3 in the "Active Galaxies Educator's Guide." (View Less)

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the colorful aftermath of the death of a Sun-like star: a planetary nebula. The text describes how this planetary nebula may have formed. In the accompanying educational activity, In Search of ... Planetary... (View More) Nebulae, students investigate how Sun-like stars end their lives through a level 1 inquiry activity using the images and text from the lithograph and other resources. A level 1 inquiry activity can help prepare students to become independent thinkers. (View Less)

This online module features an interactive model of the the Milky Way galaxy. Students click on parts of the model to read and learn about the different components of galaxies. Upon completion of this activity, students will be able to locate parts... (View More) of and build the Milky Way, and identify Earth's location within it. Additional information about our galaxy can be found in the Galaxy Gallery and Galaxy Gossip sections of the module. Students can complete this activity independently or in small groups. However, students should complete this activity prior to completing Galaxy Games. Detailed teacher pages, identified as Teaching Tips on the activity's title page, provide science background information, lesson plan ideas, related resources, and alignment with national education standards. This activity is part of the online exploration "Galaxies Galore, Games and More" available on the Amazing Space website. (View Less)

In this interactive, online activity, students practice estimation skills as they begin to explore the Hubble Deep Field image. Students first give a rough estimate of the number of objects in the image. They then use representative sampling... (View More) techniques to improve upon their original estimates. Finally, they use their estimates to calculate the number of galaxies in the universe. Students can work through the activity independently or in groups. Detailed teacher pages, identified as Teaching Tips on the title page of the activity, provide science background information, lesson plan ideas, related resources, and alignment with national education standards. This activity is part of the online exploration "The Hubble Deep Field Academy" that is available on the Amazing Space website. (View Less)

This Spanish website is a timeline where you can view the past, present and future of Infrared Astronomy. It talks about the different infrared telescopes of the past and present and how they impacted astronomy. It also presents the infrared... (View More) telescopes planned for future missions and what their contribution will be to the world of astronomy. (View Less)

This fact card is about the significance of the pattern of microwave radiation that WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) has detected. The card uses the analogy of human fingerprints to show the ability to identify the right "suspect" from... (View More) the pattern. Note: this resource was published prior to the mission name change from MAP to WMAP to honor Dr. Wilkinson. (View Less)

This service answers users questions on a wide variety of topics in high-energy astronomy. Questions are answered by scientists within the Lab for High-Energy Astrophysics at NASA/GSFC. An archive of questions and answers are categorized by topic... (View More) for users to browse. Suggestions for additional information resources are also provided. (View Less)

This fact card discusses the shape of space and how light is affected by the amount of dark matter and energy in the universe. MAP's microwave detection gives us enormous insight into the creation of this matter and energy. Note: this resource was... (View More) published prior to the mission name change from MAP to WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) to honor Dr. Wilkinson. (View Less)