The Hidden Lives of Galaxies - How Big is the Universe?
Activity #1 How Big is the Universe?
Objectives:
- Student will be able to estimate the size of the visible universe.
- Student will be able to convert from centimeters to kilometers.
Directions:
Calculate the approximate size of the universe given the following scenario: The Milky Way has a radius of approximately 50,000 light years. The visible universe has a radius of approximately 15 billion light years or 300,000 times the size of the Milky Way. If the Milky Way is an 8 centimeter wide coffee cup, how big would the rest of the universe be in kilometers?
The Milky Way has a radius of about 50,000 light years. What is the total size of the Milky Way Galaxy?________ | The visible universe has a radius approximately 15 billion light years or 300,000 times the size of the Milky Way. | So if an 8 cm wide coffee cup represents the Milky Way, the visible universe would be a sphere approx.________km in radius. |
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