INTRODUCTION

Galaxies are one of the most fascinating phenomena in the universe. The diversity
of their forms is an indication of various interaction processes which take place
within or between galaxies.

Galaxies can be described abstractly as collections of gas, Nebulæ, nebulous Stars, planetary Nebulæ, and Clusters of
dust, and stars. However, a look at the astrophysics of gala- Stars” which were published in 1786, 1789, and 1802.
xies allows one to better understand their morphology. Only William Herschel writes in the preface to his third catalogue
shortly after their discovery, the study of the forms and evo- that “our stock of materials is now so increased, that we
lution of galaxies led to fundamental questions about the should begin to arrange them more scientifically”. He also
nature of the universe. writes: “The classification adopted in my catalogues, is little
more than an arrangement of the objects for the convenience
THE FIRST GALAXY CATALOGUES of the observer, and may be compared to the disposition of
One of the early telescopic observers was Charles Messier, the books in a library, where the different sizes of the volumes
who catalogued the first galaxies in the second half of the is often more considered than their contents”. About his
eighteenth century. His motivation was to avoid confusing method of classification, Herschel says that he had “to exa-
these specks of light with new comets. The first edition of the mine the nature of the various celestial objects that have been
Messier catalogue was published in 1774 and extended in hitherto discovered, in order to arrange them in a manner
1780 and 1781. In the Messier catalogue, there was no classi- most conformable to their construction”. Nebulae were
fication of nebulae according to their appearance. The first described by William Herschel as “curious objects” which
galaxy in the Messier catalogue is M 31, the Andromeda must be especially far away. He estimated the distance of the
Galaxy. In the original catalogue, Messier describes M 31 as Andromeda Nebula completely wrongly at 2000 times the
“the beautiful nebula in the belt of Andromeda, in the form distance of Sirius, although William Herschel was possibly
of a spindle, similar to two opposite cones or pyramids whose aware of the fact that this nebula could be composed of many
bases touch”. The galaxies M 32 and M 33 follow in the cata- individual stars.
logue. M 32 is described as a “small, round nebula” and one
reads about M 33 that “the nebula is of white light which is A further milestone in the cataloguing of galaxies was the
almost uniform, but somewhat brighter at two-thirds of its publication in 1888 of John Louis Emil Dreyer,s New General
diameter”. These prosaic texts describe the objects, but do not Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC) containing
allow a comparison or classification since such descriptions 7840 objects. He also made use of older catalogues by
depend on the individual impressions at the telescope and William Herschel which had been extended by his son John
the size of the instrument. Frederick William Herschel. In 1895 and 1907 followed the
Index Catalogues, IC I and IC II, with a further 5386 nebulae
A further pioneer in the observations of galaxies was and star clusters. In spite of the size of these initial catalogues,
Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (known as William Herschel the nature of the nebular specks was unknown. William
after his emigration to England) who, aided by his sister Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, speculated that nebulae are large,
Caroline, actively looked for further such nebulae and star distant whirls of gas. (John Louis Emil Dreyer had worked as
clusters. Their observations led to several catalogues of “new an assistant for Parsons,s son Laurence, 4th Earl of Rosse.)
This was motivated by the spiral patterns visible to him at the
The Whirlpool Galaxy M 51 displays a broad spiral pattern with telescope. Some astronomers at the time considered the gala-
two spiral arms. At the northern end of M 51 one can see the com- xies to be distant stellar systems, similar to the Milky Way.
panion NGC 5195, an SB0/a galaxy (see page 196). Image credit: Other astronomers assumed that the Milky Way was a special
Josef Pöpsel, Stefan Binnewies (600-mm refl ector). object in the universe and that the nebulae were a part of it.

1
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of New England, on 06 Dec 2017 at 06:53:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316995303.001
 Introduction — The Nature of Galaxies

THE NATURE OF GALAXIES debate was decided by Cepheid variable stars. In 1908,
These two points of view came to a head in 1920 in the Henrietta Swan Leavitt had discovered the relation between
so-called Great Debate between the two astronomers Harlow their period and their luminosity. Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis. In earlier papers about the observed Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds, which are all at
irregular distribution of globular clusters, Shapley had about the same distance. This means that the apparent
estimated the diameter of the Milky Way at 300 000 light luminosity is proportional to the absolute luminosity and the
years. This value was ten times larger than that derived by relation discovered is known today as the period–luminosity
Jacobus Kapteyn at the turn of the century. In Harlow relation for Cepheids. The first generalization of the process
Shapley’s one-galaxy model, the Solar System was located was due to Ejnar Hertzsprung, who estimated the absolute
60 000 light years from the centre of this huge Galaxy. The luminosity from the proper motion of nearby Cepheids and
measured the associated periods. Using this strategy, in 1923
THE HUBBLE LAW Edwin Powell Hubble used the then most powerful reflec-
ting telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory to measure
The mathematical relation discovered by Edwin Hubble between the the distance to the Andromeda Nebula at 980 000 light
measured redshift z of spectral lines in galaxy spectra and the distance D years. This ended the debate – galaxies are very distant, inde-
of a galaxy, c · z = H0 · D, is an approximation which delivers good results pendent stellar systems.
up to about z = 0.5. Hubble used apparent magnitude as a measure of
distance. One must keep in mind that local velocities can change the the- Looking at the result of the debate in more detail, one
oretical recession-velocity values and thus distort the result. must note that Harlow Shapley was not completely wrong.
The relative offset between the Solar System and the Galactic
It seems plausible to interpret this law as the result of the Doppler effect, centre turned out to be right. With regard to the dimension
but the actual cause of the redshift is the expansion of the universe. The of the Milky Way, both parties were wrong by the same
Hubble constant H0 can be interpreted as the current value of a time- factor. Harlow Shapley overestimated the size of the Milky
dependent Hubble parameter H(t). (The name is not a misnomer; it refers Way by a factor of three while Heber’s value was a third of
to the mathematical constant in the equation above, which also relates the value established today.
velocity and distance and is valid for all velocities and distances at a given
cosmic time. The term “constant” does not imply that it is constant in Hubble used the Cepheid calibration of Ejnar Hertz-
time; in general, the value of this constant changes with cosmic time.) sprung, which had also been used by Harlow Shapley. In the
One makes use of the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker model of the cosmos 1950s, it was shown that the Cepheids in the spiral arms of
which defines H(t) as R(t)/R(t). The quantity R(t) is the scale factor of this the Andromeda Nebula discovered by Hubble belong to the
cosmological model, the Hubble parameter H(t) the relative rate of change younger population I. They are about four times as bright as
of the scale factor. Mathematically, H0 is the slope of the curve of R(t) at a the older Cepheids of population II which one had found in
given cosmic time. The linearity follows from the homogeneity and iso- globular clusters and at the centre of the Milky Way. Using
tropy of the expansion; at a given cosmic time, proper distance and the the latter period–luminosity relation, the calculated distance
corresponding velocity are related by the value of the Hubble constant at of the Cepheids in M 31 had been underestimated. Work by
that cosmic time. (However, the linearity between observable quantities Walter Baade cleared up the confusion and use of the proper
such as redshift and luminosity distance generally holds only for small Cepheid calibration resulted in a doubling of the distance of
redshifts.) At each point in the universe, an observer has the impression the Andromeda Nebula and all other extragalactic objects.
that the galaxies are moving away from him; there is no special point and
thus no centre of this expansion. After the nature of the nebulae had been resolved, Edwin
Hubble and his assistant Milton Humason turned to the
In his original paper, Edwin Hubble estimated the value of the constant search for Cepheids in further galaxies. They made use of
H0 at 500 to 550 km/s/Mpc. The value of H0 according to current spectra which had been taken on photographic plates with an
measurements, however, is between 68 and 72 km/s/Mpc; the dimension objective-prism spectrograph. This had already been done by
of H0 is an inverse time. H0 corresponds to the recession velocity at a Vesto Slipher in 1912. The optical spectrum of the Andro-
distance of a megaparsec, which is equal to 3.26 million light years. The meda Nebula showed a blueshift in Slipher,s measurements.
reciprocal of H0 is known as the Hubble time. Assuming a uniform Interpreted as a Doppler effect, M 31 would be approaching
expansion of the cosmos, this can be interpreted as the age of the the Milky Way. Already in 1915, Vesto Slipher presented the
universe. With a value of H0 = 72 km/s/Mpc, one thus obtains a Hubble spectra of 15 galaxies, some of which were receding from the
time of 13.6 billion years. In reality, the expansion is influenced by dark Milky Way at more than 1000 km/s.
energy and (dark) matter, which in general leads to a departure of the
Hubble time from the true age of the universe. The more galaxies Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason
studied, the more they noticed a preponderance of redshifts.

2
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of New England, on 06 Dec 2017 at 06:53:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316995303.001
 Introduction — The Path to the Classification of Galaxies

Sc

Sb

Sa

E0 E3 E7 S0

SBa

SBb
SBc

Figure I.1: Hubble’s tuning-fork diagram (after a figure in The

Sequence of Nebular Type, E. Hubble, 1936).

In 1929, Hubble published the relation between the redshift

and the distance of galaxies: the calculated recession velocity
increases proportionally with distance. The constant of pro- Figure I.2: NGC 6946 is observed almost completely face-on
portionality H0 is known as the Hubble constant. This fun- (see page 65).
damental relation confirmed a cosmological theory initially
proposed in 1922 by Alexander Friedmann: the universe is that “a more exact classification, perhaps as a decimal num-
expanding. ber, is not justified, because current knowledge does not
allow this”. Nevertheless, historically these terms became
THE PATH TO THE CLASSIFICATION established, but they cannot be used to indicate an age
OF GALAXIES sequence. Just to the left of the junction of the two arms of
The use of photographic plates in astrophotography provided the tuning fork, Hubble placed S0 galaxies, which display no
the basis for comparative studies of the morphology of gala- spiral structures and which he referred to as “more or less
xies. In the first attempts at galaxy classification, Edwin hypothetical”. In Figure I.1 there is a lenticular form sket-
Hubble used a scheme which Max Wolf had published in ched at this position; in the original there is a circle. Galaxies
1908. Since 1903, the latter had published several without organized structures were termed “irregular” by
Köngistuhl-Nebel-Listen (lists of nebulae observed at the Hubble. Edwin Hubble had also used the symbol Q for
observatory at Königstuhl, Heidelberg) which contained galaxies which were too weak to be classified.
hundreds of “prominent nebular specks”. There were descrip-
tions of the details of the objects with regard to form, size, The famous tuning-fork diagram was published by
and luminosity, but planetary nebulae and galaxies were trea- Edwin Hubble in 1936 in his book The Realm of the Nebulae.
ted the same in the list, making a generalization for galaxies Although there were some other classification schemes pro-
difficult. Edwin Hubble distinguished four types of galaxies posed by other astronomers, over the years Hubble’s classifi-
based on form: elliptical galaxies (E), spiral galaxies (S), bar- cation became the standard due to its simplicity. Hubble’s
red spiral galaxies (SB) and irregular galaxies (Irr). He arran- work on the classification of galaxies was continued in the
ged the first three in a tuning-fork scheme in which the two 1950s by Allan Rex Sandage. A milestone of his contribution
arms contain the S and SB types. Within the arms, there is a is the Hubble Atlas of Galaxies, which appeared in 1961.
linear a/b/c subclassification. This depends on how promi-
nent the central region is and how narrow or wide the spiral In 1959, Gérard de Vaucouleurs introduced a revised ver-
pattern appears. The subclassification of elliptical galaxies sion of the Hubble classification intended to take the charac-
uses the measured ellipticity and ranges from round E0 to teristic aspects of the dynamics of galaxies into account. For
flattened E7 types. They are at the base of the tuning fork in example, he extended the subtypes by the category d. He also
the diagram. Edwin Hubble postulated that this series is also introduced the additional specification (m) if the galaxy had
an evolutionary sequence of E and S/SB galaxies, leading a form similar to the Magellanic Clouds and in his opinion
from “early” through “intermediate” to “late” types. This was to be positioned at the transition between the regular
sequence is left to right in the diagram. Hubble also noted and irregular spiral galaxies. If there were hints of a bar, this

3
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of New England, on 06 Dec 2017 at 06:53:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316995303.001
 Introduction — The Path to the Classification of Galaxies

was assigned to the intermediate classification SAB, lying A

between Hubble,s S and SB galaxies. S0 galaxies were A
A
subdivided by de Vaucouleurs into S0−, S0 0, S0+. His extensi-
ons also included a finer distinction of the spiral patterns,
which were assigned the additional specifications (s) for spi-
ral-shaped and (r) for ring-shaped. If the pattern of the spiral
arms suggested a ring which, however, was incomplete, this r r
E E+ r
S0– S00 S0+ Sa
was described by the intermediate form (rs). Thus the types S, Sb Sc Sd Sm Im
SAB, and SB as well as (r), (rs), and (s) resulted in nine possi- s s s
ble combinations, which de Vaucouleurs divided into eight
segments. At the centre of this pattern is the intermediate
type SAB(rs).

For a sequential representation, Gérard de Vaucouleurs B

B
used the arrangement E0–E6, S0−, S0 0, S0+, Sa, Sb, Sc, Sd, B
Sm, and Im. At each point of this axis there is a plane contai-
ning the eight segments (with the ninth, centre, segment Figure I.3: 30D classification model by Gérard de Vaucouleurs (after
along the axis). The variation within the corresponding plane a figure in Classification and Morphology of External Galaxies,
appeared to him to be different for different types of galaxies. G. de Vaucouleurs, 1959).

SA(rs)

SA(s) SA(r)

s SAB(s) SAB(r) r

SAB(rs)

SB(s) SB(r)

SB(rs)

Figure I.4: Cross-section of the 3-D classification model by Gérard de Vaucouleurs (after a figure in Classification and
Morphology of External Galaxies, G. de Vaucouleurs, 1959).

4
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of New England, on 06 Dec 2017 at 06:53:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316995303.001
 Introduction — Bibliography

This is represented by the three-dimensional spindle-like these data are derived from photographs, and therefore
form with the largest volume corresponding to S0 and Sa depend on the wavelengths used for the photo. A galaxy’s
galaxies while the differences vanish for the elliptical and measured size can differ depending on the wavelengths used,
irregular galaxies at the ends. i.e. the diameter of a galaxy will be different in blue and in
red light. In order to standardize this, we have used NED as a
The first, simplified form of this system was used by de primary reference. Note also that there are types of galaxies
Vaucouleurs in the Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies where the NED diameters are misleading, such as when the
which was published in 1964 and contains 2593 galaxies. bright inner part of a galaxy is surrounded by a ring or by
This nomenclature, abbreviated “RC”, is found in many ast- fi laments with lower brightness. Here, we have tried to use
ronomical databases. A revised version, RC2, was published the image of the galaxy to measure the angular diameter, and
in 1976 with 4362 galaxies and the RC3 catalogue followed then calculate the absolute size using the NED distance
in the mid-1990s with more than 23 000 galaxies. In order to value. We know that these values are also not exact, but
make the classification of Gérard de Vaucouleurs accessible simply give a reasonable estimate of the galaxy’s true
not only to astronomers but also to students and amateurs, in dimensions.
2007 his colleagues Ronald J. Buta, Harold G. Corwin, and
Stephen C. Odewahn published The de Vaucouleurs Atlas of BIBLIOGRAPHY
Galaxies containing extensive illustrations of the various Baade, W.: The Period-Luminosity Relation of the Cepheids,
morphological types, illustrated with detailed CCD images. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,
The atlas suffers from the selection effect that it contains 68, 1956
galaxies with relatively high surface brightness. Also lacking Bartusiak, M.: The Cosmologist left behind, 2009,
is a representative picture of dwarf galaxies, today known to www.marciabartusiak.com/uploads/8/5/8/9/
be the most common type of galaxy. 8589314/cosmologist_left_behind.pdf
Buta, R. et al.: The de Vaucouleurs Atlas of Galaxies,
THE CAMBRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHIC ATLAS Cambridge University Press, 2007
OF GALAXIES de Vaucouleurs, G.: Classification and Morphology of External
With this book, we would like to document impressive Galaxies, Handbuch der Physik, 53, 1959
images taken by amateur astronomers and comment on the Frommert, H.: Original Messier Catalog of 1781, 2014,
astrophysics revealed by them. The chapters correspond to http://messier.seds.org/xtra/Mcat/mcat1781.html
the main galaxy types with the addition of dwarf, irregular, Herschel, W.: Catalogue of 500 New Nebulae, Nebulous Stars,
interacting, and ring galaxies. The two chapters on clusters Planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; With Remarks on
and groups and on quasars give an idea of the photographic the Construction of the Heavens, Philosophical Transac-
possibilities available to amateurs today. The descriptions of tions of the Royal Society of London, 92, 1802
the images highlight the astrophysical aspects of the galaxies Hubble, E.: The Classification of Spiral Nebulae,
or their surroundings shown and also offer additional infor- The Observatory, 50, 1927
mation to the general descriptions in the introductory Hubble, E.: The Realm of the Nebulae, 1936,
chapters. The appendix contains references to the literature https://archive.org/details/TheRealmOfTheNebulae
and web links for each of the image descriptions, allowing Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Techno-
the interested reader the possibility to learn more about the logy: NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, 2014,
galaxies shown. The web links point to published articles or http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu
websites. We would like to emphasize the relevant terms and NASA website: The Shapley-Curtis Debate in 1920, 2014,
conditions when using the sources. The order of objects in http://apod.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/debate_1920.html
the individual chapters follows their right ascension; depen- Sandage, A. R.: The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies,
ding on the size of the image, there can be slight variations Carnegie Institution, Washington, 1961
from this scheme. Steinicke, W.: Nebel und Sternhaufen: Geschichte ihrer
Entdeckung, Beobachtung und Katalogisierung, Books on
The data on distance and size of the galaxies were obtained Demand, Norderstedt, 2009
from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). The Wolf, M.: Königstuhl-Nebel-Liste 8. Mittlere Örter, Beschrei-
distance measures have uncertainties which in some cases bung und Helligkeitsvergleichung von 770 Nebelflecken bei
can be as large as 20 per cent. It should be emphasized that +33,2174° Ursae, Publikationen des Astrophysikalischen
the angular-diameter values of a galaxy are not exact: often Instituts Königstuhl-Heidelberg, 3, 1908

5
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of New England, on 06 Dec 2017 at 06:53:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316995303.001
Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of New England, on 06 Dec 2017 at 06:53:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316995303.001