GALAXY

- comes from the ancient Greeks and their word for milkgalactos

GALAXY
- are large systems of stars and interstellar matter typically containing several millions to some trillion stars, of masses between several million and several trillion times that of our Sun, of an extension of a few thousands to several 100,000 light years, typically separated by millions of light years distance.

How do galaxies form?

Galaxies begin to form in clouds of dark gas so huge that even light would take hundreds of thousands of years to cross them. Over time, gravity begins to pull the particles of gas together.

How do galaxies form?

Gradually, the gas clouds shrink and become more and more dense. Here and there it becomes dense enough for stars to form. At the same time the gas cloud starts to rotate and flatten out.

Classification of Galaxies
Spiral Elliptical Lenticular Irregular

Spiral Galaxy
Spirals like our own galaxy, fall into several classes depending on their shape and the relative size of the bulge: ordinary spirals are labeled either As-d,m while those which have developed a bar in the interior region of the spiral arms are Sba-d,m.

 Spiral galaxies are characterized by the presence of gas in the disk which means star formation remains active at the present time, hence the younger population of stars.

Elliptical
- are placed in the categories E0-7 depending on their degree of ellipticity. They have a uniform luminosity and are similar to the bulge in a spiral galaxy, but with no disk. The stars are old and there is no gas present. Elliptical are usually found in the high density field at the center of clusters

Lenticular
-are labeled S0 and although they possess both a bulge and a disk, they have no spiral arms. There is little or no gas and so all the stars are old. They appear to be an intermediate

Irregulars
- are small galaxies, labelled Irr, with no bulge and an ill-defined shape. The Magellanic clouds are examples.

 Within galaxies are association of stars bound together gravitationally. These stars form star clusters. Within a cluster, each star moves along its orbit. In our galaxy, there are two types of clusters:
Open cluster (Pop I stars scattered loosely) Globular clusters (millions of Pop II stars)

 Further, our galaxy is a member of a small cluster having about thirty members called The Local Group.