A series of projects covering the solar system, asteroids, stars, galaxies, and the universe. The data and images of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are used where possible to help illustrate the basic ideas of astronomy. 

With Thanks to Sloan Digital Sky Survey Educational and Public Outreach Team for allowing their work to be transferred to the EIS academy.

three people with Sloan Plate

How do We Know What the Solar System Looks Like?

Author: Kathy Gustavson with permission from the Education Team for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Age Level: High School (14+), University


A Scavenger Hunt in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has seen many kinds of objects in the sky: stars, galaxies, quasars, asteroids, comets and meteors. In this scavenger hunt, you will look for a list of these different types of objects, and learn how to look through the SkyServer database to go on a scavenger hunt through the sky!

The Universe

Author: Kathy Gustavson with permission from the Education Team for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Age Level: High School (14+), University

Asteroids

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey spends most of its time looking at galaxies and quasars very far from Earth. However, SDSS also sees many things in our own cosmic backyard. In addition to the occasional comet or meteor, Data Release 14 contains 10,000 asteroids! In this lesson you will learn what asteroids are, and how to find them in SDSS images.

Types of Stars

When astronomers look through their telescopes, they see billions of stars. How do they make sense of all of them?


Color

What exactly is color? Why do stars have different colors? And what can you learn by studying the colors of stars, galaxies, and other objects?


Galaxies

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has found more than 8 million galaxies so far. In this project, you will look at some of them to learn about different types of galaxies.