TYPES OF


GALAXIES
A galaxy is a collection of billions of
stars, gas, and dust held together by
gravity in space.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope,
scientists can take images of space. In
one small area, called the eXtreme
Deep Field or XDF (image above) each
of the bright spots is an entire galaxy–
there are 5,550 galaxies within the
image. There are probably 100 hundred
billion galaxies in the entire universe.
The Milky Way
is a collection of billions of
stars, gas, and dust held
together by gravity in space.
As seen in the image, below,
it got its name because it
appears as a milky band of
light in the sky
.
As seen in the image, below, the
Milky Way is a large spiral-shaped
galaxy which contains hundreds of
billions of stars. At the center of
the Milky Way is a supermassive
black hole named Sagittarius A
which has a mass of 4 million suns.
Our Sun, Earth, and all the planets
are located halfway between the
center and the outer edge on a
small partial arm called the Orion
Spur.
There are 3 shapes of galaxies:
spiral, elliptical, and irregular.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a

spiral galaxy.

Most galaxies have a

supermassive at the center
which has an extremely strong
gravitational pull that holds the
entire galaxy together.
 Factors in which galaxies
differ
Shape
Ages of stars
Number/amount of interstellar matter (gas
and dust)
Total mass

Brightness
Galaxy Classification


 Galaxy Classification
A large galaxy consists of thousands of star
clusters and billions to trillions of individual stars,
all held by gravity.
Galaxies can be classified by their shape, size and
color.
In 1920, Edwin Hubble, a graduate student at

University of Chicago and later at Mount Wilson
in California, developed one of the first schemes
for classifying galaxies on the basis of their shape.
He devised a more precise classification that
subdivides these galaxy shapes.
He arranged them into three main types: spirals,
ellipticals, and irregulars
Spiral Galaxy
 Has a vast rotating disc of
stars, dust and gas.
 It has a ball – shaped nucleus
inside a disc with spiral arms.
 It is said that 25% - 30%
percent of galaxies are spirals.

 In a spiral galaxy, a flattened
disc of gas – and dust – rich
material orbits a spherical
nucleus, or hub, of old red
and yellow stars, which is
often distorted into a bar
Spiral Galaxy
A spiral galaxy resembles
the Milky Way, but the
arms may be wound
more tightly than our
galaxy’s spiral arms, or
less so.
Spiral galaxies are
distinguished by having
lots of interstellar gas
nebulae, open clusters,
and globular clusters
Barred Spiral Galaxy
Are spiral galaxies in
which the spiral arms
don’t seem to emerge from
the galaxy center but from
the ends of a linear or

football – shaped cloud of
stars that straddles the
center.
Lenticular Galaxy
Are flattened systems,
with galactic disk, just like
spiral galaxies.
They contain gas and dust,
but don’t have spiral arms
and little sign of star-
forming activity in their
disc.
 The overall shape is often
described as that of a lens,
which is the root of the
name “lenticular”.
Lenticular Galaxy
It appears to be relatives of
ellipticals as they are
dominated by a roughly
spherical nucleus of old
red and yellow stars. It
also links to spiral
galaxies, and are similar in
overall size and general
shape, although the
nucleus is considered
bigger than it would be in
a spiral of similar size.
Lenticular Galaxy
Astronomers are uncertain
how lenticular galaxies
form, but they could be
spiral galaxies that have
lost most of their dust and
gas.
Elliptical Galaxy
Show little structure other
than a simple ball shape
They span the range from
the largest to the smallest
galaxies.

It contain lots of old stars
and globular star clusters
which imply that any star
formation in these galaxies
has long since ended. Each
star orbits the galaxy’s dense
core in its own path.
Elliptical Galaxy
Elliptical galaxy are
described according to their
degree of elongation or
deviation from a perfect
sphere.

Elliptical galaxies appear as
two – dimensional ellipses
but in reality they are three –
dimensional ellipsoids
ranging from roughly ball –
shaped star clouds to cigar
shapes.
Irregular Galaxies
Have shapes that tend
to be strictly irregular.
Irregular galaxies are
all the galaxies that

don’t fit in the other
categories.
These galaxies are
thought to be the
result of collisions
between galaxies.
Irregular Galaxies
They generally have
plenty of cool
interstellar gas, with
new stars forming all

the time.
They usually appear
smaller than full –
sized spirals and
ellipticals, with many
fewer stars.
They are few irregular
Dwarf Galaxies
Are diminutive
galaxies that may be a
few thousand of light –
years across, or even

less.
It is the most
abundant type of
galaxy in the universe
due to their small size,
low luminosity, and
low mass.
Dwarf Galaxies
Dwarf galaxies are
much harder to see
and count at great
distances.

Dwarf galaxies can
often be found as
acquaintances to larger
galaxies
Classification of Dwarf Galaxies
1. Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies
> appears to be the same properties as
observed
in normal elliptical galaxies, just on a smaller
scale

> it is about 1 – 10 kiloparsecs and its
luminosity
ranges from 105 – 107 solar
> It has elliptical shape, contain very little or
no
gas, and have no evidence of recent star
formation.
 Classification of Dwarf
2. Galaxies
Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
> exist at the faint end of the Dwarf Elliptical
scale
> these are galaxies that are more spherical
than

elliptical and smaller than Dwarf Elliptical,
with
diameters of about 0.1 – 0.5 kiloparsecs.
Classification of Dwarf Galaxies
3. Dwarf Irregular Galaxies
> have similar properties to the larger irregular
galaxies, it contain significant amounts of gas
and
dust and strong evidence for ongoing star
formation. 
Low Surface Brightness Galaxies
They can be as large as most other
galaxies, but they barely shine at all.
Although they have a full tank of
gas, they haven’t produced many

stars, which makes them not appear
as bright.