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8th Grade, Science

(8) Earth and space. The student knows characteristics of the universe. The student is expected to:

(A) describe components of the universe, including stars, nebulae, and galaxies, and use models such as the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for classification;

(B) recognize that the Sun is a medium-sized star located in a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy and that the Sun is many thousands of times closer to Earth than any other star;

(C) identify how different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum such as visible light and radio waves are used to gain information about components in the universe; and

(D) research how scientific data are used as evidence to develop scientific theories to describe the origin of the universe.

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Talk about a whopper-astronomers have discovered a structure in the universe so large that modern cosmological theory says it should not exist, a new study says. (Also see "Giant 'Blob' Is Largest Thing in Universe [2006].")
Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international team of researchers has discovered a record-breaking cluster of quasars-young active galaxies -stretching four billion light-years across.

"This discovery was very much a surprise, since it does break the cosmological record as the largest structure in the known universe," said study leader Roger Clowes, an astronomer at University of Central Lancashire in England.

For comparison, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just a hundred thousand light-years across, while the local supercluster of galaxies in which it's located, the Virgo Cluster, is only a hundred million light-years wide.
Giant Quasar a Head-Scratcher
Astronomers have known for years that quasars can form immense clusters that stretch to more than 700 million light-years across, said Clowes. But the epic size of this group of 73 quasars, sitting about 9 billion light-years away, has left them scratching their heads.

That's because current astrophysical models appear to show that the upper size limit for cosmic structures should be no more than 1.2 billion light-years.

"So this represents a challenge to our current understanding and now creates a mystery-rather than solves one," Clowes said. (Also see "Dark Galaxies Discovered-May Be Cosmic 'Missing Links.'")

The titanic structure, known simply as the Large Quasar Group (LQG), also appears to break the rules of a widely accepted cosmological principle, which says that the universe would look pretty much uniform when observed at the largest scales.

"It could mean that our mathematical description of the universe has been oversimplified-and that would represent a serious difficulty and a serious increase in complexity," Clowes said.
Decoding Early-Galaxy Evolution
Significant not only for its record-breaking size, the massive structure could possibly shed light on the evolution of galaxies like our own Milky Way. Quasars, which pump out powerful jets of energy, are among the brightest and most energetic objects from when the universe was still young. They represent an early, but brief, stage in the evolution of most galaxies. (See "Earliest Known Galaxies Spied in Deep Hubble Picture.")

One theory holds that this type of colossal collection of quasars may be precursors to galaxy superclusters in the modern universe-but the exact nature of their connection is still a mystery.

The discovery, a prime target for computer modeling, also needs to be mapped out more thoroughly with telescopes, said Gerard Williger, an astronomer at the University of Louisville in Kentucky not connected with the study.

"This structure is bigger than we expect based on the shockwaves formed in the universe after the big bang," said Williger.

"There is very likely some mechanism [that] is turning on quasars over a large scale like this-and in a short time-which could relate to some condition in the early universe."

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Biggest Thing in Universe Found-Defies Scientific Theory

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Talk about a whopper-astronomers have discovered a structure in the universe so large that modern cosmological theory says it should not exist, a new study says. (Also see "Giant 'Blob' Is Largest Thing in Universe [2006].") Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, an international team of researchers has discovered a record-breaking cluster of quasars-young active galaxies -stretching four billion light-years across.

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The goal of this lesson plan is to expand students' knowledge over the objectives of this unit. Students will use an article from the National Geographic website learn about the scale of the universe.
Before reading, students will engage in a Think-Pair-Share with their partners and class about the following question: Why do we measure distance in space in light years?
During reading, students will participate in a Jigsaw reading, during which, students will be divided into small groups. Each small group will read and become "experts" on their assigned section of reading so that they can teach the class about their section.
After reading, students will be given a Frame Routine outline to fill out using the three main ideas from the text.

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Discuss background knowledge prior to lesson

Reflect on real-world application

Discuss the history of how scientists have learned about the universe

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Pose questions from data

Develop and question possible answers

Organize data into diagrams

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Viewing a simulation of the size of the universe

Interpret diagrams and be able to understand the scale of the diagram

Viewing and interpreting scientific texts/evidence

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Target Text:
Cosmic Voyage
Directed by: Bayley Silleck

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The student will be able to:

1. ...relate the size of a human to the size of the universe.

2. ...understand how we measure size/distance in space.

3. ...order components of the universe (planet, star, galaxy, universe) based on size.

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How do we, as humans, compare to the size of the Universe?