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Teachers' Guide to the 1929 Cosmic Times Articles

This poster is the second edition of the Cosmic Times, and the articles in this edition build on the concepts introduced in the 1919 edition. The headline story is that Edwin Hubble has discovered that the Universe is expanding. The idea of an expanding Universe is contrary to Einstein's assumption of a static Universe, and while Einstein was not convinced of the veracity of Hubble's results, the astronomical community generally accepted them. This discovery came on the heels of the discovery that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy in the Universe, which was determined in 1920, also by Hubble.

An intermediate discovery – that there were galaxies outside the Milky Way – is also introduced, and is important to Hubble's findings of an expanding Universe.

The language in the 1929 newspaper mimics the style of writing that would have appeared in a real 1929 newspaper. The language and sentence structure may be a bit difficult for your students to read; however, we have provided three versions of the text in newletter form: an Early Edition aimed at 7-8 graders, a Home Edition aimed at 9-10 grades (with text from the online edition), and a Late Edition aimed at 11-12 grades (with the text from the poster). These, along with a glossary and questions for understanding are available on the download page. The poster also shows a layout that mimics the papers of the time, however, we have taken some creative license to make it more readable in a classroom setting. Real newspapers of the time would have had 5-7 narrow columns of small type.

Use the following links for further background on each of the articles in the 1929 Cosmic Times:

• Andromeda Nebula Lies Outside Milky Way Galaxy
• Universe is Expanding
• "Great Debate" Resolved
• The Minds atop Mount Wilson
• Classifying Nebulae
• Age of Universe: 2 Billion Years; Size of Universe: 280 Million Light Years

Download the teacher's guide for all Cosmic Times editions: doc, pdf