#elliptical galaxy

[quiltofstars]

The Andromeda Galaxy, M31 // Ronald Rijkers

Two of its satellite galaxies are here too: M110 (below) and M32 (above).

[livingforstars]

Galaxies Away - March 26th, 1998.

"This striking pair of galaxies is far, far away...about 350 million light-years from Earth. Cataloged as AM0500-620, the pair is located in the southern constellation Dorado. The background elliptical and foreground spiral galaxy are representative of two of the three major classes of galaxies which inhabit our Universe. Within the disks of spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, gas, dust, and young blue star clusters trace out grand spiral "arms." The dust lanes along the arms of this particular spiral stand out dramatically in this Hubble Space Telescope image as they obligingly sweep in front of the background elliptical. Like the central bulges of spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies tend toward spherical shapes, resulting from more random motions of their stars. But while spirals produce new stars, star formation in ellipticals which lack gas and dust seems to have stopped. How do galaxies evolve with cosmic time? Evidence is growing that graceful galaxy shapes can hide a violent history."

[sitting-on-me-bum]

The universe

Two antennae galaxies colliding. Scientists from the University of Southampton believe galaxies crashed together to create gigantic elliptical galaxies.

Photograph: NASA/PA

[wikipediapictures]

NGC 1549

[spacetelescopescience]

Did you know galaxies are classified into three major categories: elliptical, spiral, and irregular? These galaxies span a wide range of sizes, from dwarf galaxies containing as few as 100 million stars to giant galaxies with more than a trillion stars: https://bit.ly/3WNI1Rd

[zespaceblog]

Hubble Views NGC 4694

While holding the shape of a elliptical galaxy, NGC 4694 is often classified as lenticular, due to the dust lanes that spread through it.

While it's not unusual to have large dust areas in elliptical galaxies, they tend to lack the hydrogen gas that accompanies them in spirals which are then responsible for star birth.

This image was requested, because it is known that around this galaxy are huge deposits of hydrogen, not visible, but clearly occasionally falling inwards, so it's assumed the dust may be hiding some star formation.

[chibinotan]

Interacting Buddies

[timbercow]

Space jaws hunting a space seal. Based on NGC 1427A for the shark, and the Antennae Galaxies for the seal.