How to Improve Your 8th Grade Paper on the Collision of Two Galaxies?

[c-english]

I am writing a paper on the collision of two galaxies. I would like advice on using the right method to complete this project. I have found some sites about the collision of the galaxies:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140826141130.htm
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.4859.pdf
https://machineslikeus.com/news/best-view-yet-merging-galaxies-distant-universe

I have found these articles to work with and I have taken out some key-terms:

Cosmic Lenses
Antennae Galaxies
Far-infrared regime
H1429-0028
Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey

I would like to know if there are some important key terms that I have missed. What is a way to expand on this vocabulary to create a proper 8th Grade paper?

 

[jedishrfu]

Wikipedia is a good starting point for references and terminology

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interacting_galaxy

And from Earth and sky

http://Earth'sky.org/space/best-view-yet-of-colliding-galaxies-in-distant-universe

And this simulation in java

http://burro.cwru.edu/JavaLab/GalCrashWeb/

 

[marcus]

I am writing a paper on the collision of two galaxies. I would like advice on using the right method to complete this project. I have found some sites about the collision of the galaxies...

Hi C, just a side question. Have you encountered anything on the collision of CLUSTERS of galaxies?
E.g. the "bullet cluster" was in the news a lot around 2006 as I recall.

It seems easier to get clear images of collisions of clusters. Use Xray astronomy to map the temperature of the gas in and around the cluster. Use gravitational lensing to map the density of the dark matter in and around the cluster.

Study where the hot clouds of ordinary matter gas went during the collision (they tend to be stopped) and study where the DM went. It is less interactive so DM clouds can pass through each other.

Very interesting. You can see it all mapped out in the Bullet Cluster images.

Did anybody suggest to you that you might write about cluster collision instead of galaxy collision? Did anybody suggest to you that you might expand your topic so you could write a little about each kind? I'm curious about how you came up with the idea of just doing galaxy collision.

The best stuff that is strictly on galaxy collision, IMHO, are the computer simulation of the dynamics. Simulations of what will happen when Milky and Andromeda collide. Stuff like that. It can be very pretty to watch the animations. Passing thru, whipping off parts of arms, falling back for a second pass thru. Hard to describe in words. Finally they merge.
But we can't watch a real collision like that in real time.

 

[c-english]

Marcus,
Nobody suggested any of those events to me but I cannot consider it either way because the article I am writing the paper on has to have been published in the past two weeks.

 

[c-english]

I am outlining my paper on this subject and I am finding the: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How and this is what I have come up with:

Who: An international team of astronomers

What: A distant pair of merging galaxies named H1249-0028

Why: The group of astronomers were able to find the merging galaxies because they used cosmic lenses which deflect the light from objects behind them due to their strong gravity. The galaxies collided because the forces of gravity between the two galaxies are pulling them together.

Where:

When: The collision of the galaxies happened approximately 7 billion years ago.

How: Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes on the ground and in space, they were able to view the object in different light (viewing) spectrums. They enlisted the help of a galaxy-sized magnifying glass to reveal otherwise invisible detail.

Are there anyways I can expand on these to make sure that it is appropriate for an 8th/7th Grade audience? Is there anything important that I have missed?

After doing research I have gotten every single one of these categories except for the "where". I have put in a quite a bit of time to finding where the collision of these two galaxies happened but I still couldn't find the answer. Can anyone tell me where the location of the H1249-0028 galaxy collision happened?

 

[vociferous]

You already found the answer. It occurred in HATLAS J142935.3-002836, which means those coordinates in the Herschel Atlas.

The right ascension is 14:29:35.3 and the declination is 00:28:36.

If you familiarize yourself with what these terms mean (right ascension is the longitude of an object on the celestial sphere at the vernal equinox and declination is the latitude on the celestial sphere above the equator), you should be able to find which constellation the object is in by consulting a star map or planetarium program.

I'll give you a hint, the mythology of the constellation involves a mother who lost her daughter to pomegranates.

 

[c-english]

Final Result

Hi guys, I have finished my paper and thank you for all your inputs. It would be helpful if you could give me some constructive criticism on this paper so I know what I can do better on my second one.