The Galaxies A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium

of gas dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The name is from the Greek word galaxias literally meaning "milky", a reference to the Milky Way galaxy. If the stars of the Milky Way would disappear, the night sky would be very black. Only the great galaxy in Andromeda and the two Magellanic Clouds ,which are nearby galaxies, would be visible to the naked eye. Yet the universe is filled with about 100 billion galaxies covering almost the whole sky. PROPERTIES OF THE GALAXIES 1.Distance, Diameter, and Luminosity The distance to galaxies are so large that it is necessary to use a unit larger than a parsec. The unit is the mega parsec(Mpc) which is equivalent to 1,000,000 pc or 3.26 million light years. To find the distance to a galaxy, the following methods are utilized: Using Cepheid variable stars -to determine the absolute magnitude. Using bright, giant stars, supergiant stars, globular clusters, and novae in a galaxy. -These object have absolute magnitudes of about -9. Their apparent magnitudes can be determined, and subsequently, the distance of the galaxy. Using clouds of ionized hydrogen gas around very hot stars in the galaxy. -The diameters of these clouds can be determined. The small angle formula can then be used to find the distance. Using galaxy -The vast distances between the galaxies allow you to look back in time. 2. Mass One method to determine the mass of a galaxy uses what is known as a rotation curve. The average distance of a star from center and its corresponding period gives an estimate of the galaxys mass. 3. Motion Doppler shifts show that galaxies are not only rotating but also moving along a radia direction.in 1929, Edwin Hubble, an American astronomer announced a general law of red shift now known as the Hubble law. This states that a galaxys velocity of recession is equal to a constant multiplied bi its distance. This law relates a galaxys radial velocity V in kilometres per second to its distance R in mega parsecs. THE MORPHOLOGY OF GALAXIES Three broad classes of galaxies according to their shapes are: Elliptical, Spiral, Irregular

Astronomers commonly arrange galaxies in a tuning fork diagram. ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES Elliptical galaxies are also named because of their shapes. Elliptical galaxies range from circular (remember, a circle is an ellipse!) to long, narrow, and cigar-shaped.

Elliptical galaxies are denoted by the letter E. They are also given a number from 0 to 7. An E0 galaxy looks like a circle. An E7 galaxy is very long and thin. Astronomers have specific mathematical definitions for each number, but these definitions are beyond the scope of this project. With some practice, you can learn to visually tell what type of elliptical galaxy you are observing. 70% of all the galaxies are elliptical. They have nearly no visible gas or dust, lack hot bright stars, and have no spiral arms. The stars are more crowded near the center and the outer parts of some large elliptical galaxies have hundreds of globular clusters. The largest elliptical galaxies have diameters about 5 times larger than that of Milky Way. The smallest are 100 times smaller than our galaxy. The most massive is about 50 times the mass of our galaxy. The least massive is about SPIRAL GALAXIES Spiral galaxies are make up only 15 % of all the galaxies. Their distinguishing characteristics is the disk component that contains gas , dust, and bright stars. The gas and dust clouds support the formation of stars. The largest spiral galaxies are about 1.5 times larger in diameter than the Milky way and the smallest are about 5 times smaller. Some spiral galaxies have a bright line, or bar, running through them. These are called "barred spiral galaxies." The image below shows a barred spiral galaxy. Galaxies without a bar are simply called "spiral galaxies. The arms of a spiral galaxy have lots of gas and dust, and they are often areas where new stars are constantly forming. The bulge of a spiral galaxy is composed primarily of old, red stars. Very little star formation goes on in the bulge. IRREGULAR GALAXIES Irregular galaxies make up about 15 %of all galaxies. They have chaotic appearance. They have large clouds of dust and gas mixed with young and old stars. Most galaxies fit one of the three previously described types, but about 3% of the galaxies we observe are very different. These so-called "irregular galaxies" do not have a lot of common features. Many of them are the results of galaxy collisions or near misses. One type of irregular galaxy is called a "starburst galaxy." Starburst galaxies shine brightly as many new stars are born in a short period of time. Irregular galaxies are usually found in groups or clusters, where collisions and near-misses between galaxies are common. In a few irregular galaxies, astronomers can't figure out why they look so strange! Irregular galaxies are denoted by the letters Irr. COLLIDING GALAXIES The average of separation between galaxies is about 20 times their diameter and thus they should collide once in a while. However since the stars average separation in a region near the sun is about 10 7 times their diameter, stars nearly never collide with each other. When two galaxies collide, they pass through each other and there is no direct collision between stars. Powerful telescopes show hundreds of galaxies that look as if they are colliding with other galaxies. Some interacting galaxies appear to be connected by a bridge of matter.

CLUSTER OF GALAXIES Isolated galaxies are rare. Most occur in groups or clusters containing a few to a thousand galaxies in volume of 1-10 Mpc across. Clusters of galaxies can be classified into rich clusters and poor clusters. RICH CLUSTERS containing a thousand or more galaxies. POOR CLUSTERS contain less than a thousand galaxies. Our Milky Way is a member of a poor cluster known as the local group which contains about 24 galaxies nonuniformly scattered in a volume of about 1 Mpc in diameter. Like other poor clusters of galaxies the local group is divided into subclusters. The two largest galaxies are Milky Way and Andromeda. Both spiral galaxies are centers of two subclusters. The Milky Way subgroup contains the milky Way the two Megallanic clouds and seven other dwarf galaxies. The Andromeda galaxy is accompanied by dwarf elliptical galaxies. Clusters of galaxies seem to be associated with each other in a group known as a supercluster. ACTIVE GALAXIES All galaxies including the Milky way emit rado waves from neutral hydrogen, molecular clouds, pulsars and others. These galaxies are called radio galaxies. Recent observation indicated that many galaxies were also emitting infrared, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths. All these galaxies that produce much more energy than a normal galaxy generates are known as active galaxies. The emission of large amounts of energy can be explained by assumption that the nucleus of an active galaxy contains black hole. QUASARS A Quasars is a small but powerful source of energy that seems to be the core of very distant galaxy. It is also called a quasi-stellar object. It generates 10 to 1000 times more energy than a galaxy in a volume of a few light-years in a diameter. It has very large red shifts which indicate that it is very far. As in the case of active galaxies, quasars are thought to be powered by a massive black hole. A black hole gobbling down about 10 solar masses per year could power a quasar. GALACTIC EVOLUTION The traditional theory states that the Milky Way galaxy started 10 to 15 billion years ago as a swirl of hydrogen and helium gases that contracted because of their own gravity. However recent evidence show that galaxies did not form suddenly from isolated gas clouds. Galaxies developed through gradual interactions, collisions, and merger of smaller clouds of stars and gas. these have dominant influence on the structures of galaxies. Collisions between the two galaxies are also trigger star formations. Such galaxies become brilliant with young hot stars. Elliptical galaxies seem to be the result of collisions and mergers. A typical brilliant elliptical galaxy mat be the merged remains of about ten spiral galaxies. These mergers can explain the various shapes of elliptical galaxies. The spiral galaxies are those that have not yet experienced major collisions since their formation. They may have interacted with smaller galaxies just as the Milky Way is now interacting with Megallanic clouds.

MILKY WAY GALAXY The Milky Way Galaxy, commonly referred to as just the Milky Way, or sometimes simply as the [a] Galaxy, is the home galaxy of the Solar System, and of Earth. The Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy around two thirds of the way out from the center, on the inner edge of the Orion Cygnus Arm. The Sun orbits around the center of the galaxy in a galactic yearonce every 225-250 million Earth years. The "Milky Way" is a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn translated from the Greek (Galaxias), referring to the pale band of light formed by stars in the galactic plane as seen from Earth FACTS ABOUT MILKY WAY 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Its warped. 2. It has a halo, but you cant directly see it. It has over 200 billion stars. Its really dusty and gassy. Its made up of other galaxies. There is a black hole at the center. Its almost as old as the Universe itself. Its part of the Virgo Super cluster, a grouping of galaxies within 150 million light years. Its on the move.

ANDROMEDA GALAXY -is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, and is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, but not the closest galaxy overall. It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the Andromeda constellation, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years [4] from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. It is also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, and is often referred to as the Great Andromeda Nebula in older texts. Andromeda is the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, but not the closest galaxy overall. It gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the Andromeda constellation, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda. Andromeda is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which consists of the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies. Although the largest, Andromeda may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and may be the most massive in the grouping.The 2006 observations by the Spitzer 12 Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (10 ) stars, more than the number of stars in our 11 own galaxy, which is estimated to be c. 200-400 billion. Andromeda is estimated to be 7.110 solar masses. In comparisonAt an apparent magnitude of 3.4, the Andromeda Galaxy is notable for being one of the brightest Messier objects, making it visible to the naked eye on moonless nights even when viewed from areas with moderate light pollution. Although it appears more than six times as wide as the full Moon when photographed through a larger telescope, only the brighter central region is visible to the naked eye or when viewed using a binoculars or a small telescope. a 2009 study estimated that the Milky Way and Andromeda are about equal in mass, while a 2006 study put the mass of the Milky Way at ~80% of the mass of Andromeda. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are expected to collide in perhaps 4.5 billion years.
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