What is an elliptical galaxy made of? Elliptical galaxies are made up of mostly old stars, and do not have much gas and dust. There is very little new star formation in these galaxies. Elliptical galaxies also come in many sizes. The largest galaxies we see are ellipticals, but, elliptical galaxies can also be small.
What is the 4 types of galaxies?
In 1936, Hubble debuted a way to classify galaxies, grouping them into four main types: spiral galaxies, lenticular galaxies, elliptical galaxies, and irregular galaxies.
Are elliptical galaxies the biggest?
Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. Among the largest are the “ellipticals”, massive ball-shaped conglomerations of up to a trillion stars.
What causes elliptical galaxies?
When two spirals collide, they lose their familiar shape, morphing into the less-structured elliptical galaxies. A supermassive black hole is thought to lie at the center of these ancient galaxies. … Born from collision, elliptical galaxies are more commonly found around clusters and groups of galaxies.
What is the age of an elliptical galaxy?
The accepted belief on the mass assembly history of massive elliptical galaxies based on their stellar population leads to an age between 7 and 10 billion years old.
How do we know we live in a spiral galaxy?
1) When you look toward the Galactic Center with your eye, you see a long, thin strip. This suggests a disk seen edge-on, rather than a ellipsoid or another shape. We can also detect the bulge at the center. Since we see spiral galaxies which are disks with central bulges, this is a bit of a tipoff.
What is the rarest type of galaxy?
Astronomers recently mapped the rarest type of galaxy ever found: an elliptical galaxy sporting rings of young stars. Most galaxies, including our own Milky Way, are spiral or elliptical. But this recently mapped galaxy, called PGC 1000714, is unique.
What type of galaxy do we live in?
We live in one of the arms of a large spiral galaxy called the Milky Way. The Sun and its planets (including Earth) lie in this quiet part of the galaxy, about half way out from the centre.
What are two characteristics of an elliptical galaxy?
There are four distinguishing characteristics of the ellipticals: (a) they have much more random star motion than orderly rotational motion (star orbits are aligned in a wide range of angles and have a wide range of eccentricities); (b) they have very little dust and gas left between the stars; (c) this means that they …
Can an elliptical galaxy evolve into a spiral?
There is no way that an elliptical galaxy could spontaneously begin rotating, so there is no way an elliptical galaxy could turn into a spiral galaxy. Although Hubble was wrong about his theory of galaxy evolution, his diagram provides a useful way to classify galaxies.
What happens when two elliptical galaxies collide?
When the galaxies collide, it causes vast clouds of hydrogen to collect and become compressed, which can trigger a series of gravitational collapses. A galaxy collision also causes a galaxy to age prematurely, since much of its gas is converted into stars.
What is the closest elliptical galaxy?
Distance Information
The closest known galaxy to us is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, at 236,000,000,000,000,000 km (25,000 light years) from the Sun. The Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy is the next closest , at 662,000,000,000,000,000 km (70,000 light years) from the Sun.
What are 3 characteristics of elliptical galaxies?
There are four distinguishing characteristics of the ellipticals: (a) they have much more random star motion than orderly rotational motion (star orbits are aligned in a wide range of angles and have a wide range of eccentricities); (b) they have very little dust and gas left between the stars; (c) this means that they …
Why does an elliptical galaxy look like one giant star?
An elliptical galaxy looks as if it is a giant star because it lacks the distinctive structure of a spiral galaxy, where the bulge is surrounded by a…
Which spiral arm is the closest to our sun?
Our Sun lies near a small, partial arm called the Orion Arm, or Orion Spur, located between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms.
What do we see when we look at the Milky Way?
When you observe the night sky with your eyes, you can see the Moon, perhaps several planets, and many stars. If you are in a particularly dark location and if the moonlight is not too bright, you may also see a faint band of light that stretches from horizon to horizon.
How do we know we are in a galaxy?
But we can infer the shape of our galaxy by looking outward into space – toward tens of billions of other galaxies. Our universe makes galaxies only in only a few basic models. The most common are spiral or disk-shaped galaxies – and we believe our galaxy is one of these.
What is the most beautiful galaxy?
The most beautiful galaxies in the universe
- Andromeda Galaxy. …
- Cigar Galaxy or Messier 82. …
- Molinete Galaxy. …
- Hat Galaxy. …
- Whirlpool Galaxy. …
- The Black Eye Galaxy. …
- Fan Galaxy or Messier 74. …
- Galaxies Antenna.
What is the rarest thing in the universe?
Scientists say the First, a gigantic space object that came from outside our solar system, can actually be extremely rare. According to them, it is a huge piece of hydrogen ice.
What is a dead galaxy?
What is a « dead » galaxy? Galaxies are broadly categorized as dead or alive: dead galaxies are no longer forming stars, while alive galaxies are still bright with star formation activity. A ‘quenching’ galaxy is a galaxy in the process of dying — meaning its star formation is significantly suppressed.
What is a galaxy simple definition?
A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems, all held together by gravity. … A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems. A galaxy is held together by gravity.
Where is Earth in the galaxy?
Earth is in the second largest galaxy of the Local Group – a galaxy called the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a large spiral galaxy. Earth is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way (called the Orion Arm) which lies about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the Galaxy.
What is the middle of a galaxy called?
The Galactic Center (or Galactic Centre) is the rotational center, the barycenter, of the Milky Way galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which powers the compact radio source Sagittarius A*, which is almost exactly at the galactic rotational center.
What type of galaxy has the youngest stars?
Cards
| Term What is the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy? | Definition A huge, slowly revolving disk. |
|---|---|
| Term Which galaxy type has the oldest stars? | Definition Elliptical |
| Term Which galaxy types has the youngest stars? |
Definition Irregular |
| Term Which galaxy type are typically the largest galaxies in the universe? | Definition Spiral |
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May 13, 2009
References
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