Outline of galaxies
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to galaxies:
Galaxies – gravitationally bound systems of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally "milky", a reference to the Milky Way. Galaxies range in size from dwarfs with just a few billion (109) stars to giants with one hundred trillion (1014) stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology as elliptical, spiral and irregular. Many galaxies are thought to have black holes at their active centers.
The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a mass four million times greater than the Sun. As of March 2016, GN-z11 is the oldest and most distant observed galaxy with a comoving distance of 32 billion light-years from Earth, and observed as it existed just 400 million years after the Big Bang. Previously, as of July 2015, EGSY8p7 was the most distant known galaxy, estimated to have a light travel distance of 13.2 billion light-years away.
What type of thing are galaxies?
Galaxies can be described as all of the following:
Types of galaxies
By morphological classification
Galaxy morphological classification
- Disc galaxy
- Lenticular galaxy
- Barred lenticular galaxy
- Unbarred lenticular galaxy
- Spiral galaxy (list)
- Dwarf galaxy
- Elliptical galaxy
- Irregular galaxy
- Peculiar galaxy
- Ring galaxy (list)
By nucleus
- Blazar
- Low-ionization nuclear emission-line region
- Markarian galaxies
- Quasar
- Radio galaxy
- Polar jet#Relativistic jet
- Seyfert galaxy
By emissions
- Energetic galaxies
- Lyman-alpha emitter
- Luminous infrared galaxy
- Starburst galaxy
- Hot, dust-obscured galaxies (Hot DOGs)
- Low activity
- Low-surface-brightness galaxy
- Ultra diffuse galaxy
By interaction
By other aspect
- Galaxies named after people
- Largest galaxies
- Nearest galaxies
Nature of galaxies
Galactic phenomena
- Galactic year – duration of time required for the Sun to orbit once around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.[1]
- Galaxy formation and evolution
- Galaxy merger
- Hubble's Law
Galaxy components
- Components of galaxies in general
- Active galactic nucleus
- Galactic bulge
- Galactic disc
- Galactic habitable zone
- Galactic halo
- Galactic magnetic fields
- Galactic plane
- Galactic spheroid
- Interstellar medium
- Spiral arms
- Supermassive black hole
- Structure of specific galaxies
- Milky Way components
- Galactic Center
- Galactic quadrant
- Spiral arms of the Milky Way
- Galactic ridge
- Milky Way components
Galactic cartography
- Galactic coordinate system
- Galactic longitude
- Galactic latitude
- Galaxy rotation curve
Larger constructs composed of galaxies
- Galaxy groups and clusters (list)
- Local Group – galaxy group that includes the Milky Way
- Galaxy group
- Galaxy cluster
- Brightest cluster galaxy
- Fossil galaxy group
- Galaxy filament
Intergalactic phenomena
- Galactic orientation
- Galaxy merger
- Hypothetical intergalactic phenomena
- Intergalactic dust
- Intergalactic stars
- Void (list)
Fields that study galaxies
- Astronomy
- Galactic astronomy – studies the Milky Way galaxy.
- Extragalactic astronomy – studies everything outside the Milky Way galaxy, including other galaxies.
- Astrophysics
- Cosmology
Galaxy-related publications
Galaxy catalogs
- Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies
- Catalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies
- David Dunlap Observatory Catalogue
- Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database
- Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies
- Multiwavelength Atlas of Galaxies
- Principal Galaxies Catalogue
- Shapley-Ames Catalog
- Uppsala General Catalogue
- Vorontsov-Vel'yaminov Interacting Galaxies
Persons influential in the study of galaxies
- Galileo Galilei – discovered that the Milky Way is composed of a huge number of faint stars.[2][3]
- Edwin Hubble
See also
References
- Cosmic Year Archived 2014-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Fact Guru, University of Ottawa
- Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius (Venice, (Italy): Thomas Baglioni, 1610), pages 15 and 16. English translation: Galileo Galilei with Edward Stafford Carlos, trans., The Sidereal Messenger (London, England: Rivingtons, 1880), pages 42 and 43.
- O'Connor, J. J.; Robertson, E. F. (November 2002). "Galileo Galilei". University of St. Andrews. Retrieved January 8, 2007.
External links
- Galaxies on In Our Time at the BBC
- Galaxies, SEDS Messier pages
- An Atlas of The Universe
- Galaxies — Information and amateur observations
- The Oldest Galaxy Yet Found
- Galaxy classification project, harnessing the power of the internet and the human brain
- How many galaxies are in our Universe?
- The most beautiful galaxies on Astronoo
- 3-D Video (01:46) – Over a Million Galaxies of Billions of Stars each – BerkeleyLab/animated.