Question 1 8 pts
OPTION 1: (available only if the federal government is not in shutdown)
A) Go to the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) app or website for July 2, 2012, and watch the video clip “Zooming into the Center of the Milky Way” (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120702.htmlLinks to an external site.). Why is there a change (not redshift) in wavelengths of the selected pictures?
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B) On APOD, run a search for “Milky Way” to look at some of the best photographs of it. Where were TWO of these Milky Way APOD pictures taken from? Can you see the Milky Way from your location on a clear night?
OPTION 2:
A) Why does the galactic center have to be observed in infrared and X-ray wavelengths?
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B) Go to the “Milky Way Galaxy” page of the Chandra X-ray telescope website (http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category/milkyway.htmlLinks to an external site.) and to the Spitzer infrared telescope website (http://spitzer.caltech.eduLinks to an external site.). Find some images of the galactic center. Cut/paste some labeled results to illustrate what has been learned from each telescope, treat like you were making your own APOD.
Question 2 8 pts
Go to the websites of the two main groups studying the supermassive black hole at the galactic center: the UCLA Galactic Center Group (must cut/paste into browser) https://galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/black-hole-science.htmlLinks to an external site. AND https://galacticcenter.astro.ucla.edu/animation.html and the Galactic Center Research group at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (http://mpe.mpg.de/ir/GCLinks to an external site.) and https://www.mpe.mpg.de/7814964/nobelpreisLinks to an external site.
Watch some of the time-lapse animations of the stars orbiting something unseen. Why is it assumed that the unseen object is a black hole? Provide supporting data from each of the referenced websites. Be sure to include some specific results these groups are reporting.
Question 3 8 pts
Go to the Hubble Space Telescope website and watch the videos about the possible collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/videosLinks to an external site. From the Hubblesite main page, click on VIDEOS then in the search box type ANDROMEDA and you will find many such animations.
Alternatively, a newer simulation is here: scroll down to the Andromeda collision video under the RESEARCH heading. https://www.icrar.org/multimedia/videos/Links to an external site.
1. Tell me which video from which site you are going to be writing about by including the video title. 2. Now, provide a summary of what you saw (first x happened, then y happened, last z happened to conclude the video after 4 minutes). 3. Last, answer Why will Andromeda “eat” the Milky Way instead of the other way around?
