Myth vs Reality: Understanding How Galaxies Change

 

 

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:

 

·       Illustration of radiation from everyday objects courtesy of STScI

·       Illustration of electromagnetic waves courtesy of STScI

·       Photo of crepuscular rays courtesy of Wikimedia user Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

·       Photo of snake courtesy of Mark Mannetti

·       Infrared image of a mouse courtesy of Julius Lab, UCSF

·       Photo of snow geese and the Moon courtesy of Brocken Inaglory

·       James Webb Space Telescope illustrations by STScI/G. Bacon

·       Ariane 5 rocket launch image ©2008 ESA – CNES – Arianespace/Photo by Optique Video CSG

·       James Webb Space Telescope animation by STScI/G. Bacon

·       Animation of traveling light pulses courtesy of Footage Island

·       Alpha Centauri animation courtesy of ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)

·       Andromeda Galaxy image courtesy of ESA/Hubble & Digitized Sky Survey 2; acknowledgment: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

·       Illustration of galaxies at different distances by STScI/A. Field

·       Cosmic redshift animation courtesy of ESO

·       Simulated JWST galaxy field image courtesy of STScI

·       Taurus constellation drawing from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

 

 

(DESCRIPTION) 

A mythical part human part bull on one side of the screen, a photo of a galaxy on the other. Text: Myth Versus Reality. 

 

(SPEECH) 

[COSMIC MUSIC] 

 

(DESCRIPTION) 

Myth: We can't watch galaxies change, so we can't understand how they evolve over time. Reality: While changes in one galaxy are often too slow for us to observe in real time, there are many galaxies across cosmic history that can be seen with powerful telescopes. Astronomers observe light from many galaxies at different cosmic distances, each in a different stage of development, to get an idea of how a single galaxy can change over time.