Coma Cluster of Galaxies

In 2006, the Hubble Space Telescope pointed its piercing gaze at a nearby collection of galaxies called the Coma Cluster. Using the unprecedented images that the HST provided, astronomers gained fascinating insights into the evolution of galaxies in dense galactic neighborhoods. In this activity, students will first learn the basics of galaxy classification and grouping, then they get to use some actual HST images to discover the 'morphology-density effect' and make hypotheses about its causes.

*Note: The images in the activity are very large and use a lot of toner when printing. This first version contains "negatives" of the original space images, Printing this version saves toner and provides better image detail for the students. If you are printing several copies for your students, please use this version:

Student Guide (with negatives of images)

Teacher Guide (with negatives of images)

This is the original version of the activity that is found in the StarDate Teacher Guide:

Student Guide (with positives)

Teacher Guide (with positives)