Abstract
This lab is a test in student understanding on understanding
spiral and elliptical galaxies.
Introduction
Astronomers regularly are tasked with the duty of identifying
strange distant galaxies to examine their properties for our own understanding
of the universe and staying consistent with the science we know presently. In this
lab student are simply being tasked with testing their abilities to
differentiate between galaxy types.
Procedure A
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1. Irregular
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2. Spiral
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3. Irregular
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4. Spiral
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5. Elliptical
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6. Irregular
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7. Irregular
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8. Spiral
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9. Spiral
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10. Elliptical
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11. Elliptical
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12. Spiral
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13. Spiral
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14. Spiral
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15. Elliptical
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16. Elliptical
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17. Elliptical
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18. Elliptical
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19. Elliptical
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20. Irregular
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21. Spiral
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22. Spiral
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23. Spiral
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24. Elliptical
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25. Irregular
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26. Spiral
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27. Spiral
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28. Elliptical
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29. Elliptical
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30. Irregular
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31. Spiral
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32. Elliptical
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33. Irregular
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34. Irregular
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35. Spiral
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36. Irregular
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37. Spiral
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38. Spiral
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39. Spiral
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40. Elliptical
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41. Spiral
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42. Elliptical
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43. Elliptical
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44. Spiral
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45. Elliptical
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46. Spiral
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47. Spiral
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48. Elliptical
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49. Spiral
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50. Irregular
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51. Irregular
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52. Spiral
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Procedure B
1.
Spiral Galaxies look like galaxies in which a
central object is being orbited, and from that orbit arm-like spindles are
produced and trace behind the farther out the arms appear to be. Elliptical Galaxies
appear to have a distorted circular shape, which is smooth and featureless when
viewed from great distances.
2.
M84 and M86 the largest galaxies of the Virgo
cluster both appear to be elliptical.
3.
NGC4438 appears to be a spiral galaxy that is
not facing the Hub
ble Space Telescope perpendicular to its spin, so what is
seen in the image is somewhat distorted by perspective.
4.
NGC4388: Spiral, NGC4413: Spiral, NGC4402: Spiral,
NGC4374: Elliptical, NGC4425: Spiral. I’ve come to these conclusions about
these respective galaxies purely from visual estimation. I am actually reconsidering
that they are all spiral clusters and that I may have made a mistake when
looking at NGC4374.
5.
The Hercules Cluster is richest in spiral
galaxies and shows the presence of many interacting galaxies.
6.
In order to capture the relative distance
between the Virgo Cluster and Hercules Cluster, astronomers would need to first
discover the distances between both astronomical phenomena and our own planet. From
that astronomers could potentially then use geometry to triangulate the
distance between the two clusters.
7.
Because my method of locating began with finding
the distances of both the Virgo and Hercules clusters, knowing that the
distance from the Virgo Cluster is 50 Million light-years away is simply the
first step to my method. If the Virgo Cluster is 50 Million light-years away,
then the Hercules galaxy would be 24,000 light-years away from Earth.
Procedure C
The elliptical galaxies present in the provided HDF image
look similar in shape to the elliptical galaxies present in the Virgo and
Hercules Clusters, but seem slightly different in terms of light density from
the center to outer areas. I also believe that the elliptical galaxies evolved
into regular shapes before the spiral galaxies as they often appear visually
similar regardless of time. Most of the irregular galaxies present the HDF
image appear to have blue stars which could make one infer that younger
galaxies are the ones that typically become irregular. The elliptical galaxies
present in the photo appear in a spectrum of yellow to red by which it can be
assumed that they are older when compared to the irregulars. When comparing the
HDF and cluster images, irregular galaxies seem to be missing in the cluster image.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this lab was a good test on my knowledge of
identifying galaxies by different types, and was a thought provoking when attempting
to culminate ideas on why minute differences are present among galaxies exist.
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