Galaxies differ enormously, yet they can be categorized according to their shape. There are spiral, elliptical, barred spiral or irregular shaped galaxies in the universe. Spiral galaxies like the Pinwheel Galaxy and the NGC 4414 galaxy consists of a flat rotating disc and a central bulge. The disc contains stars, gas and dust while the term bulge is used for a central concentration of stars in the galaxy. The spiral galaxies are so called due to the presence of spiral arms that extend from the centre to the disk. New stars are formed in the spiral arms hence they are brighter than the surrounding disk. According to Wikipedia, spiral galaxies have the following characteristics.
- A flat rotating disc of stars
- A central bulge of older stars
- A near- spherical halo of stars
- A supermassive black hole at the centre . (Sagittarius A* in the Milky Way)
- A near - spherical dark matter halo
Milky Way galaxy |
IC 1101 galaxy : an elliptical galaxy |
Irregular galaxies have no specific regular shape and they contain lots of gas and dust so most of them are helpful for the formation of new stars.
Our milky way is a part of a galaxy group known as the Local Group. A group of galaxies is the smallest collection of galaxies. Normally, galaxy groups don't contain more than 50 galaxies and they are the most common structures of galaxies in the universe. I will state more about group of galaxies later in my other posts.
The Laniakea Supercluster or the Local Supercluster is where the Local Group belongs to. Superclusters are very large structures which contain large groups of galaxy clusters or groups.
The Local Supercluster |
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