Laboratory : Galaxies

Purpose: Is there a link between the distance of a galaxy and its velocity relative to earth?

Matériel :

· NED galaxies list : http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/NED1D/

· Pen, ruler

· You acan also use excel type program

Student laboratory report :

from a list of galaxies (here's a small sample)

The student draws a graph velocity vs. Distance (more galaxies more interesting will be the results)

This gives a graph like this:

We can calcuer the age of the universe as follows:

Distance (d) = speed(v) x time (t)

𝑑=𝑣×𝑡

𝑡=𝑑/𝑣= 1/slope

𝑡=(3,0856776×10¹⁹)/(63,132 𝑀𝑝𝑐) = 4,8877×10¹⁷ 𝑠𝑒𝑐 = 1,5488×10¹⁰ years

the 3,0856776×10¹⁹ came from the conversion of megaparsec into km

15,5 billons years with this small sample.