Expanding Universe: Procedure

1. Look at the galaxy spectrum. The strongest line (highest spike) is the same line as the "reddest" (longest wavelength) line you should have seen when you looked at the tube of hydrogen. Place a mark above this line and write down the wavelength you measure from the plot. Also write down the wavelength you measured earlier from the tube.
2. Use the formula from section 3 to calculate the velocity at which this galaxy is moving away from us. Do you think this is very fast?
3. A supernova is found in a distant galaxy. A supernova in a closer galaxy is 100 times brighter but emits the same amount of energy. The closer galaxy is known to be (what the...) meters away--that means it takes the galaxy's light 300 million years to get here! How far away is the distant galaxy?
4. Now we know both the distance and the velocity of the galaxy. Use the formula: Time = Distance / Velocity t = d / v to estimate the age of the universe.
5. Your answer for the last part was in seconds. Divide this number by 30,000,000 () to get the age in years. How many billions of years is this?