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The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science will support Rubin Observatory in its operations phase to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. They will also provide support for scientific research with the data. During operations, NSF funding is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF, and DOE funding is managed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), under contract by DOE. Rubin Observatory is operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC.

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

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  1. Education
  2. Educators
  3. Investigations
  4. Expanding Universe
  5. Teacher Guide - Expanding Universe
  6. Where This Fits in Your Teaching

Expanding Universe

Start Investigation
Investigation total duration
1.5 hours

Teacher Guide - Expanding Universe

  1. Introduction
  2. Where This Fits in Your Teaching
  3. Next Generation Science Standards
  4. Background and Notes
  5. Student Ideas and Questions

Where This Fits in Your Teaching

  • Hubble’s Law

  • Cosmological redshift

  • Distance ladder

  • Big Bang theory

  • Universe

  • Cosmological principle

  • Dark energy

  • Supernovae

  • Lookback time

  • Galaxies

  • History of astronomy

  • Standard candles


Suggested investigations which could come before this one:

Students learn how to distinguish between two different types of supernovae in the Exploding Stars investigation, then use a Type Ia supernova light curve to calculate the distance to a galaxy.

In Unlocking the Distances to Galaxies, students analyze light curves of Cepheid variable stars and use the period-luminosity relation to determine distances to galaxies.


Suggested investigation which could come after this one:

In Exploring the Observable Universe students use the redshift and position of galaxies to explore how the large scale structure of the Universe has changed over time.

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