About This Lesson
This collection of 13 mathematical activities introduces students to some unusual places in our galaxy that are outside our solar system. Students apply mathematical skills and principles such as multiplying decimals, working with proportions, and estimating to explore how astronomers measure the brightness, or magnitude, of stars and how they classify stars according to temperature. Students also use mathematics to estimate the number of stars in the galaxy. The lessons are correlated to common core standards in mathematics.