Name:_____________________
What can galaxies look like?
When we look at the sky, we are limited to seeing 2 dimensions. Stuff in our universe usually comes in 3 dimensions. This is true of galaxies. In this activity, we will try to visualize how those 3 dimensions might project to 2 dimensions.
A. You’ve been given several model galaxies in the form of M+Ms, chocolate eggs, and Necko wafers. Before you gobble them all down, please tilt your “galaxies” to 3 different orientations and draw how each orientation would look on the 2 dimensions of the sky.
B. Next, imagine that you are living on a planet inside one of these galaxies. Say the planet is 2/3rds of the way out from the center of that galaxy (kind of like where the Earth is located in the Milky Way). Where will the stars of the model galaxies be concentrated across the sky? In a line like the Milky Way, an even distribution, or some other concentration?
I. Necco wafers (“Spiral Galaxies”)
A. Draw 3 different 2D projections of your wafer.
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B. How will the stars be distributed across the sky?
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B. How will the stars be distributed across the sky?
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