Milky Way Galaxy
Charles Messeir, who was charting the sky
Milky Way Galaxy is a faint band of light
may appear that looks like milk spilled
across the sky. The ancient Romans
called the band via lacteal which means
“milky road” or “milky way”. It contains
hundreds of billions of stars like our
sun. Earth is located about halfway
between the center of the Milky Way
and it’s outer edge. All the stars and
planets you can see are part of the
Milky Way galaxy. Only one in 3 people
in the United States can see the Milky
Way band with their naked eye. Those
people live far from the city lights that
black out stars.
Andromeda Galaxy
Is the closest large galaxy to the Milky
Way and is one of a few galaxies that can
be seen unaided from the Earth. In
approximately 4.5 billion years the
Andromeda Galaxy and Milky Way are
expected to collide and the result will be
a giant elliptical galaxy. It is accompanied
by 14 dwarf galaxies including M32, M110
and possible M33 (The Triagulum Galaxy).
Sombrero Galaxy
Is one of the most unusual looking barred
spiral galaxies visible from the Earth. It’s
bright nucleus, large central bulge and
spiral arms threaded through with a thick
dust lane make it look like a hat in Mexico.
The dust lane is a ring that circles the bulge
of the galaxy and it is rich with gas, dust and
hydrogen gas. Because it has all elements
needed for star formation, it’s not surprising
that astronomers have found many sites of star
formation inside.
Whirlpool Galaxy
The whirlpool, like many other galaxies has a
supermassive black hole at it’s heart surrounded around our own Milky Way Galaxy.
by rings of dust. The core of the galaxy is quite
quite active making the Whirlpool what
astronomers call a “Seyfet galaxy”.
The whirlpool galaxy is first observed by
looking for objects that might be confused
with comets.
Black Eye Galaxy
Also known as Messier 64 (M64) is famous
spiral galaxy located in the constellation
Coma Bernecise. It is sometimes called the
Evil Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy
It is approximately 24 million light years
away from Earth. It is known for enormous
light absorbing dust band in front of it’s
central region, the dust band obscure the stars
in the galaxy’s bright core. It is very popular
target by amateur stargazers because it’s
bright nucleus can be observed even in small
small telescopes.
Elliptical galaxies- are galaxies appear
elliptical in shape and they are round, smooth
collection of stars and can be almost perfect
circle. The stars involved here are mostly the
oldest stars in the universe and because of this
these galaxies appear redder in color. It has
very little amount of gas and dust and the
stars involved orbited in random and
elongated manner.
Spiral galaxies- it has a shape like a disc, the
stars, gas and dust gathered in a spiral arms
that spread outward from it’s center. It has a
lot of gas, dust and new forming stars. Since
it has a lot of hot and young stars, it is the
brightest galaxies in universe. Ex. Andromeda,
Milky Way, Pinwheel, Sunflower and
Trigulum Galaxy.
Irregular galaxies- does not have a distinct
regular shape. They are the smallest galaxies
and are full of gas and dust and it means that it
has a lot of star formation going on within
them. The Large and Small Magellanic clouds
are examples of irregular galaxies which orbit
Globular star cluster- are tightly packed
symmetrical collections of stars, orbiting
mostly in the extended star halos surrounding
most spiral galaxies. It contains some of the
oldest stars in galaxy and thought formed
early in its history. Ex. Omega Centauri
is located in Milky Way which is about
16, 000 light years and contains million of
stars.

Galactic star cluster- are much younger and

smaller than globular clusters. They are the
recent birthplaces of new stars, which form
out of clouds of dust and gas, and contain
only hundreds or thousands of stars. Though
the stars in an open cluster formed together
out of the same material, they do not remain
gravitationally bound over time and spread
out, scattering their stars far and wide.
Because they are not gravitationally bound,
these clusters can have random and irregular
shapes. Ex.

Poor cluster- as what it’s name suggests,

poor cluster contains less than a thousand
of galaxies. A poor cluster might occupy a
similar-sized region of space as a rich clusters
but with fewer galaxies. This obviously means
that galaxies are spread apart, like how people
living in a farming community have houses
separated by great distances.
Ex. Milky Way

Rich cluster- a rich galaxy is a cluster contains

over a thousand galaxies. It is typically crowded
at the center with galaxies. Rich clusters often
contain one or more giant elliptical galaxies
at their centers.