Weird and Wonderful of The Universe: The Galaxies
Published by Galaxies are collections of billions of stars held together by the gravitational pull they exert on each other. They evolved from clumps of matter distributed irregularly through space.
Weird and Wonderful of the Universe: The Galaxies
By Mr Ghaz, August 5, 2010
Weird and Wonderful of the Universe: The Galaxies
Galaxies are collections of billions of stars held together by the gravitational pull they exert on each other. They evolved from clumps of matter distributed irregularly through space.
Around 100 billion galaxies are currently known to exist in the visible Universe.
Galaxies are classified as either normal or active, based on the size and rate of activity of the black holes at their centers.
There are four types of normal galaxies: spiral, barred spiral, elliptical and irregular.
The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, and our Sun and Solar System lie on one of the spiral arms.
Some galaxies belong to small groups, others occur in large clusters of hundreds or thousands of galaxies. Superclusters, which can reach diameters of up to 100 million light years, contain tens of thousands of galaxies.
Normal Galaxies
These are classified by their overall shape. Spiral galaxies have arms wound round a central nucleus. Barred spirals have arms spiraling round a bar-shaped core. Both contain a high level of star-forming activity. Elliptical galaxies are oval and have no arms. They may have formed from collisions between spiral galaxies. They show little star-forming activity, and contain mainly old stars. Irregular galaxies have no specific shape or structure.
Barred spiralgalaxy NGC 1530 has arms radiating out from a central bar-like structure.
Classical spiralgalaxy NGC 6946 is a galaxy in the constellation of Cepheus.
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On August 5, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Beautiful glaxies
On August 5, 2010 at 6:12 pm
It always amazes me when I think of universe, and earth is a mere dot.
On August 5, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Great one….lovely pics.
On August 5, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I wonder who counts all those stars and galaxies…
On August 5, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Wonderful article Mr. G.
On August 5, 2010 at 11:33 pm
lovely pics and article
On August 6, 2010 at 2:06 am
Excellent.
On August 6, 2010 at 2:29 am
Beautifully presented!
On August 6, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Nice share. very interesting article on Galaxies…thanks mr G
On August 6, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Extremely interesting article. well done ghaz. keep it up
On August 7, 2010 at 10:51 am
These are beautiful. Wonderful artcle again!
On September 17, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Food for thought: If the universe started from a defined point in the abyss billions of years ago and is still spreading outward, still forming galaxies and solar systems; would it stand to reason that the first place where life emerged would be perhaps billions of years more advanced than mankind? Now! If we have seen an explosion in technology and mind expanding knowledge in just my lifetime, what’s to prevent the first, or second “race” from being so superior to ourselves that we would have no way to define them but as “God(s)”?
The Dellwood Philosophers Son
I was telling my wife this thought and added that we would have glasses that would connect everything we see to the internet (thus enhancing memory for Alzhiemers victims) in about 50 years. Wrong! Read an article the next day that it will be in the upcoming decade. Do you see where I am going with this?
On February 15, 2012 at 11:06 am
This is amazing!
On February 15, 2012 at 11:08 am
You all suck!!!!!!!!!