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    Galaxy Reading

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    Galaxies come in three main types - spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way contain stars, planets, dust and gas rotating around the galactic center in spiral arms. Elliptical galaxies are round but elongated shapes containing older stars. Irregular galaxies have misshapen forms often due to gravitational interactions. Galaxies interact and sometimes merge together, shaping the evolution of the universe over billions of years since its beginning.

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    Galaxy Reading

    Uploaded by

    api-271070606
    1K views3 pages
    Galaxies come in three main types - spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way contain stars, planets, dust and gas rotating around the galactic center in spiral arms. Elliptical galaxies are round but elongated shapes containing older stars. Irregular galaxies have misshapen forms often due to gravitational interactions. Galaxies interact and sometimes merge together, shaping the evolution of the universe over billions of years since its beginning.

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    Galaxies come in three main types - spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way contain stars, planets, dust and gas rotating around the galactic center in spiral arms. Elliptical galaxies are round but elongated shapes containing older stars. Irregular galaxies have misshapen forms often due to gravitational interactions. Galaxies interact and sometimes merge together, shaping the evolution of the universe over billions of years since its beginning.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views3 pages

    Galaxy Reading

    Uploaded by

    api-271070606
    Galaxies come in three main types - spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Spiral galaxies like the Milky Way contain stars, planets, dust and gas rotating around the galactic center in spiral arms. Elliptical galaxies are round but elongated shapes containing older stars. Irregular galaxies have misshapen forms often due to gravitational interactions. Galaxies interact and sometimes merge together, shaping the evolution of the universe over billions of years since its beginning.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Galaxy Reading

    Galaxies are sprawling space systems composed of dust, gas, and


    countless stars. The number of galaxies cannot be countedthe
    observable universe alone may contain 100 billion. Some of these
    distant systems are similar to our own Milky Way galaxy, while
    others are quite different.

    Galaxies with less than a billion stars are considered "small


    galaxies." In our own galaxy, the sun is just one of about 100 billion
    stars.

    TYPES OF GALAXIES

    Galaxies are classified into three main types: spiral galaxies,


    elliptical galaxies, and irregular galaxies.

    Spiral galaxies, such as the Milky Way, consist of a flat disk with a
    bulging center and surrounding spiral arms. The galaxy's disk
    includes stars, planets, dust, and gasall of which rotate around
    the galactic center in a regular manner.

    This spinning motion, at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per


    second, may cause matter in the disk to take on a distinctive spiral
    shape like a cosmic pinwheel. Some spiral galaxies obtain even
    more interesting shapes that earn them descriptive names, such as
    sombrero galaxies.
    Older stars reside in the bulge at the center of the galactic disk.
    Many new stars also form in spiral systems, and their disks are
    surrounded by a halo, which scientists believe is rich with
    mysterious dark matter.

    Elliptical galaxies are shaped as their name suggests. They are


    generally round but stretch longer along one axis than along the
    other. They may be nearly circular or so elongated that they take
    on a cigarlike appearance.

    Elliptical galaxies contain many older stars, up to one trillion, but


    little dust and other interstellar matter. Their stars orbit the
    galactic center, like those in the disks of spiral galaxies, but they
    do so in more random directions. Few new stars are known to form
    in elliptical galaxies.

    The universe's largest known galaxies are giant elliptical galaxies,


    which may be as much as two million light-years long. Elliptical
    galaxies may also be small, in which case they are dubbed dwarf
    elliptical galaxies.

    Galaxies that are not spiral or elliptical are called irregular galaxies.
    Irregular galaxies appear misshapen and lack a distinct form, often
    because they are within the gravitational influence of other
    galaxies close by.

    GALACTIC MERGERS

    Some galaxies occur alone or in pairs, but they are more often
    parts of larger associations known as groups, clusters, and
    superclusters.
    Galaxies in such groups often interact and even merge together in
    a dynamic cosmic dance of interacting gravity. Mergers cause
    gases to flow towards the galactic center, which can trigger
    phenomena like rapid star formation.

    Our own Milky Way may someday merge with the Andromeda
    galaxyjust two million light-years away and visible to the naked
    eye from Earth's Northern Hemisphere.

    These intergalactic processes may be part of natural evolution by


    which irregular galaxies transform into one of the other shapes,
    and by which spiral galaxies eventually become elliptical galaxies
    as scientists believe they must.

    GALAXY ORIGINS

    Most astronomers suggest that galaxies formed shortly after a


    cosmic "big bang" that began the universe some 10 billion to 20
    billion years ago. In the milliseconds following this explosion,
    clouds of gases began to coalesce, collapse, and compress under
    gravity to form the building blocks of galaxies.

    Scientists are divided on just how galaxies first formed. Some


    believe that smaller clusters of about one million stars, known as
    globular clusters, formed first and later gathered into galaxies.
    Others believe that galaxies formed first and that only later did the
    stars within them begin to gather into smaller clusters.

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