Galaxy Worksheets Free Sample Thank you so much for downloading the sample resource. We hope it has been useful for you in the classroom and that your students enjoy the activities. KidsKonnect is a very small family run business and we are proud that we can offer education to over 40 countries globally. The more support we have from our Premium members the more resources we can release. If you want the more comprehensive and detailed worksheet collection then please upgrade to our Premium plan and support our quest to make education affordable for all. Don’t forget to come back and download the new material we add every week! Thanks for supporting KidsKonnect. We can provide teachers with low-cost, high-quality teaching resources because of our loyal subscribers and hope to serve you for many years to come. - Ryan, Beth & Nicola :) Galaxy Facts Include image source in the speaker notes below. Galaxy is a gravitationally bound entity, typically consisting of dark matter, gas, dust, and stars. Galaxies populate the Universe, mainly residing in clusters and groups. DESCRIPTION ★ ★ ★ There are thought to be over 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, and the most well-known galaxy is our own Milky Way. The term galaxy comes from the Greek “gala,” meaning “milk.” Nearly all large galaxies are thought to contain supermassive black holes at their centers. Our sun is just one of about 100 to 400 billion stars that spin around Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole that contains as much mass as four million suns. KIDSKONNECT.COM Galaxy Facts ORIGIN ★ ★ The Big Bang Theory ★ ★ The universe's first stars ignited some 180 million years after the big bang, the explosive moment 13.8 billion years ago that marks the origins of the universe as we know it. Gravity had sculpted the first galaxies into shape by the time the universe turned 400 million years old, or less than 3 percent of its current age. Astronomers now think that nearly all galaxies—with possible exceptions—are embedded in vast haloes of dark matter. Theoretical models also suggest that in the early universe, vast tendrils of dark matter provided ordinary matter the gravitational scaffold it needed to coalesce into the first galaxies. However, there are still open questions about how galaxies form. Some believe galaxies were formed from smaller clusters of about one million stars, known as globular clusters, while others hold that galaxies formed first, and later birthed globular clusters. It is also challenging to figure out how many galaxy's stars formed in situ from its own gas, versus forming in another Elliptical Galaxy galaxy and joining the party later. KIDSKONNECT.COM Galaxy Facts CLASSIFICATION ELLIPTICAL GALAXY ★ Elliptical galaxies are shaped as their name suggests: they are generally round but can stretch longer along one axis than along the other, so much so that some take on a cigar-like appearance. The universe's largest known galaxies — giant elliptical galaxies — can contain up to a trillion stars and span two million light-years across. Elliptical galaxies may also be small, in which case they are called dwarf elliptical galaxies. ★ Elliptical galaxies contain many older stars, but little dust and other interstellar matter. Their stars orbit the galactic center, like those in the disks of spiral galaxies, but they do so in more random directions. Few new stars are known to form in elliptical galaxies. They are common in galaxy clusters. SPIRAL GALAXY ★ More than two-thirds of all observed galaxies are spiral galaxies. ★ A spiral galaxy has a flat, spinning disk with a central bulge surrounded by spiral arms. That spinning motion, at speeds of hundreds of kilometers a second, may cause matter in the disk to take on a distinctive spiral shape, like a cosmic pinwheel. Our Milky Way, like other spiral galaxies, has a linear, starry bar at its center. Spiral Galaxy KIDSKONNECT.COM Galaxy Facts CLASSIFICATION ★ ★ When Hubble, an American astronomer, developed his classification system for galaxies based on their appearance in optical light, he divided the spirals into those in which the spiral arm radiated from a central bulge (classic spirals), and those where the arms radiated from a central bar (barred spirals). These two regions can be seen clearly in color images of face-on spirals. The central bulge or bar is yellow indicating older stars, while the bright nebulae and young blue stars formed from gas and dust in the galaxy, trace out the spiral arms within the disk. Dust is also visible in edge-on spirals as dark lanes, similar to the dark lanes we see in our own Milky Way when we observe the night sky. IRREGULAR GALAXY ★ Galaxies that are not spiral or elliptical are called irregular galaxies. They have no defined shape nor structure and may have formed from collisions, close encounters with other galaxies or violent internal activity. They contain both old and young stars, significant amounts of gas and usually Irregular Galaxy exhibit bright knots of star formation. ★ Irregular galaxies — such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds that flank our Milky Way — appear misshapen and lack a distinct form, often because they are within the gravitational influence of other galaxies close by. They are full of gas and dust, which makes them great nurseries for forming new stars. KIDSKONNECT.COM Name: ________________________________ Choose What? To complete the interesting facts below, choose the correct words connected to the image. Some galaxies are ________ like ours, the ________. They have curved arms that make it look like a pinwheel. Other ________ are smooth and ________. They’re called elliptical galaxies. And there are also galaxies that aren’t spirals or ovals. They have ________ shapes and look like blobs. The ________ that we see from each of these galaxies comes from the stars inside it. irregular galaxies spiralshaped Milky Way light ovalshaped GALAXY WORKSHEETS KIDSKONNECT.COM Choose What? ANSWER KEY Some galaxies are spiral-shaped like ours, the Milky Way. They have curved arms that make it look like a pinwheel. Other galaxies are smooth and oval-shaped. They’re called elliptical galaxies. And there are also galaxies that aren’t spirals or ovals. They have irregular shapes and look like blobs. The light that we see from each of these galaxies comes from the stars inside it. irregular galaxies spiralshaped Milky Way light ovalshaped GALAXY WORKSHEETS KIDSKONNECT.COM Copyright Notice This resource is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. You are free to: ● Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format ● Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: ● Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ● NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. For more information on this license, visit the following link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Thank you! KIDSKONNECT.COM
