Last time I took to you to the furthers object known to man! In fact that object was a very young galaxy and i promised you that we´d further explore the field of galaxies and the different structures they have.
For now let´s take a look at the word galaxy. The word galaxy actually derives from the Greek word "galaxias" - which literally means "milky". And that´s because the only galaxy know to the Greeks was our own galaxy, the milk way - which looks like a cloudy milky glowing ribbon on the night sky.
Indeed our galaxy is a Spiral Galaxy, of which we are part. Our sun together with the 8 planets including Earth is inside the milky way disc. And because the disc is flat we see this glowing ribbon on the sky. In the picture above you can clearly see that in the center of the image there´s also the center of the milky way and therefor this area is much brighter than the edges. So we found our first type a galaxy, a spiral galaxy. Of course we can not see our milky way from above, but we can look at other spiral galaxies in the universe to get an idea of how our milky way might look. Here we go.
The 3 galaxies in the pictures above have something in common. They are discy shaped and have a bright center, and from that center the spiral arms spread. We don´t see the spiral arms in the last picture, but we can see that the Sombrero Galaxy is a flat disk, with some dark dusty clouds in it. The same clouds we can see in our milky way.
Other appearances of glaxies are elliptical galaxies and irregular galaxies. Let´s look at an elliptical galaxy first. Elliptical galaxies are more like a glow or a shimmer in space, without a clear structure distinguishable. The amount of stars inside elliptical galaxies can vary widely and stars inside of elliptical galaxies are on average much older than stars found in common spiral galaxies.
There are ring galaxies
Just plain irregular galaxies
And peculiar galaxies
And eventually some more that we haven´t discovered yet.
Even though galaxies are often millions of lightyears appart from each other, and the size of the universe being just plain huge there comes a time when galaxies meet in space and even melt with each other. It´s not a collision, like a car accident, it´s more like if you poor two liquids together. Or mix two colored gas clouds. It looks like this.
Even our milky way will melt one day with our neighbouring galaxy the Andromeda. In about 5 billion years. Still time for some coffee.
Sehr interessanter Artikel mit erstaunlichen Fotos!
Freut mich dass er dir gefallen hat 😊 sehen wir uns nu eig beim Stammtisch?
Ja, ich komme gerne :) Ich schreib es auch noch auf die Stammtisch-Seite ;)
Super interesting @flurgx. Looking forward for more astronomy-articles from you.
Regarding the 1st picture of the ring galaxy. The bright thing in the center, is it the "main sun" of this galaxy? Is it comparable with our solar system?
The centers of galaxies are usual bright because there is a dense population of stars but we can not see a single star within another galaxies, nor is there such a thing as a main star. Astronomers say there's a black hole within the center of a galaxy.. But it could also be a white hole,.. We don't know for sure.. Maybe it's both, black and white together... We know very little about the universe and how it really works 😊
Such a wonderful article with great information I never knew about. I get a cappuccino now 😜
Good choice 😂😂😂
"Still some time for coffee." Ha! Thank god!
The universe loves us 😇
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It is spectacular when galaxies collided, but thanks god we will not witness when Milky Way meets Adromeda. :-)
It must be a great view though of those two meet and you are in one of them 😊
Echt interessant, toller Artikel! Als Kind war ich immer sehr fasziniert und wollte eines Tages Astronom werden und das Universum erkunden. Leider hat mich diese Faszination mit der Zeit verlassen..Einen Funken konnte ich mir dennoch behalten ;-)
Freut mich dass dir der Artikel gefällt! Oh ja, einmal in Stille und Ehrfurcht in den Himmel und schon kommt der Funke wieder 😊
Ich weiß ganz genau, was du meinst!
Von allen Fotos zu den jeweilen Galaxien fasziniert mich persönlich dieses Foto von denen, die als Galaxien bisher noch nicht entdeckt sind, am direktesten.
Thx, @flurgx
immer wieder gerne @zeuss11 :) so viel schönheit da draußen! und noch viel mehr direkt vor unserer nase!