Growing up at a time when the Hubble Space Telescope orbits above our heads and giant telescopes are springing up on the great mountaintops of the world, you may be surprised to learn that we were not sure about the existence of other galaxies for a very long time. The very idea that other galaxies exist used to be controversial. Even into the 1920s, many astronomers thought the Milky Way encompassed all that exists in the universe. The evidence found in 1924 that meant our Galaxy is not alone was one of the great scientific discoveries of the twentieth century.---------------------------------------Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike".

Edwin Hubble examined the spectra of many galaxies, looking for the red (longer wavelengths) or blue (shorter wavelengths) shifts in the spectra, indicating relative motion. To his surprise, not only did all of the galaxies appear to be moving, but all were moving away from us, no matter the direction of the galaxy. In addition, he found most galaxies exhibited a redshift, and the redshift was larger the further it was from our galaxy.Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike".

This laboratory consists of two parts. In part A, we will follow Hubble’s method of measuring distances. Using pulsation time periods, we will obtain the absolute magnitude of a Cepheid variable and convert this absolute magnitude into luminosity which will, in turn, give us the distance. In Part B, we will use spectral shift (the Doppler effect) to determine the Hubble Constant.  --------------------------------------- Distant Nature: Astronomy Exercises 2016 by Stephen Tuttle under license "Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike".

Watch the sixth episode of our #EZScience series to learn about the 30th anniversary of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.

Roughly one hundred billion galaxies are scattered throughout our observable Universe, each a glorious system that might contain billions of stars. Many are remarkably beautiful, and the aim of Galaxy Zoo is to study them, assisting astronomers in attempting to understand how the galaxies we see around us formed, and what their stories can tell us about the past, present and future of our Universe as a whole. Are you an educator? Would you like to use Galaxy Zoo with a group of students? The Navigator is an interactive tool that allows groups to classify galaxies together and then investigate galaxy characteristics. Zoo Teach is where educators can share lessons, resources and that compliment the citizen science projects that are part of the Zooniverse.

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided us with remarkable insights into our universe, but its start was anything but smooth.

This video segment adapted from the Space Telescope Science Institute shows what the Hubble telescope found when it stared at a single, nearly empty spot in the sky for 10 days in 1995. The unexpected result was a picture of a multitude of galaxies stretching into the distance.

Hear astronaut Michael Good explain the significance of the Hubble Space Telescope as well as his role in its service mission.

The scientists who opened the skies to humanity without ever leaving the ground.

In this episode of STEM in 30, learn the science behind observing, and discover the equipment that allows us to see further and further out.

Learn about the Hubble and Webb telescopes and how their discoveries have changed how we look at the universe.

This collection of activities is based on a weekly series of space science mathematics problems distributed during the 2012-2013 school year. They were intended for students looking for additional challenges in the math and physical science curriculum in grades 5 through 12. The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of modern science and engineering issues, often involving actual research data. The problems were designed to be one-pagers with a Teacher’s Guide and Answer Key as a second page.

These guides showcase education and public outreach resources from across more than 20 NASA astrophysics missions and programs. The twelve guides - one for each month - contain a science topic, an interpretive story, a sky object to view with finding charts, hands-on activities, and connections to NASA science. The guides are modular, so that educators can use the portions that are the most useful for their audiences/events. Following is the theme for each month: January - Betelgeuse, February - Orion Nebula, March - Pleiades, April - Pollux; May - Hubble Deep Field, June - Hercules Cluster, July - Ring Nebula & Veil Nebula, August - The Search for Habitable Worlds, September - Milky Way Galaxy, October - Upsilon Andromedae, November - Andromeda Galaxy, and December - Crab Nebula.