The location of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy. Planets of other solar systems Planets of other solar systems

The universe is huge and fascinating. It is difficult to imagine how small the Earth is compared to the cosmic abyss. Astronomers' best guess is that there are 100 billion galaxies, and the Milky Way is just one of them. As for Earth, there are 17 billion similar planets in the Milky Way alone... and that's not counting others that are radically different from our planet. And among the galaxies that have become known to scientists today, there are very unusual ones.

1. Messier 82

Messier 82 or simply M82 is a galaxy five times brighter than the Milky Way. This is due to the very rapid birth of young stars in it - they appear 10 times more often than in our galaxy. The red plumes emanating from the center of the galaxy are flaming hydrogen that is being ejected from the center of M82.

2. Sunflower Galaxy

Formally known as Messier 63, this galaxy has been nicknamed the Sunflower because it looks like it came straight out of a Vincent van Gogh painting. Its bright, sinuous "petals" are composed of newly formed blue-white giant stars.

3. MACS J0717

MACS J0717 is one of the strangest galaxies known to scientists. Technically, this is not a single stellar object, but a cluster of galaxies - MACS J0717 was formed by the collision of four other galaxies. Moreover, the collision process has been going on for more than 13 million years.

4. Messier 74

If Santa Claus had a favorite galaxy, it would clearly be Messier 74. Astronomers often think about it during the Christmas holidays, because the galaxy is very similar to the Advent wreath.

5. Galaxy Baby Boom

Located approximately 12.2 billion light-years from Earth, the Baby Boom Galaxy was discovered in 2008. It got its nickname due to the fact that new stars are born in it incredibly quickly - approximately every 2 hours. For example, in the Milky Way, a new star appears on average every 36 days.

6. Milky Way

Our Milky Way Galaxy (which contains the Solar System and, by extension, the Earth) is truly one of the most remarkable galaxies known to scientists in the Universe. It contains at least 100 billion planets and about 200-400 billion stars, some of which are among the oldest in the known universe.

7. IDCS 1426

Thanks to the IDCS 1426 galaxy cluster, today we can see what the Universe was like two-thirds younger than it is now. IDCS 1426 is the most massive galaxy cluster in the early Universe, having a mass of about 500 trillion Suns. The galaxy's bright blue core of gas is the result of the collision of galaxies in this cluster.

8. I Zwicky 18

The blue dwarf galaxy I Zwicky 18 is the youngest known galaxy. Its age is only 500 million years (the age of the Milky Way is 12 billion years) and it is essentially in an embryonic state. This is a giant cloud of cold hydrogen and helium.

9. NGC 6744

NGC 6744 is a large spiral galaxy that astronomers believe is one of the most similar to our Milky Way. The galaxy, located about 30 million light-years from Earth, has a remarkably similar elongated core and spiral arms to the Milky Way.

10. NGC 6872

The galaxy, known as NGC 6872, is the second largest spiral galaxy ever discovered by scientists. Many regions of active star formation were found in it. Since NGC 6872 has virtually no free hydrogen left to form stars, it is sucking it out of the neighboring galaxy IC 4970.

11. MACS J0416

Found 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, galaxy MACS J0416 looks more like some kind of light show at a fancy disco. In fact, behind the bright purple and pink colors lies an event of colossal proportions - the collision of two galaxy clusters.

12. M60 and NGC 4647 - galactic pair

Although gravitational forces pull most galaxies towards each other, there is no evidence that this is happening with neighboring Messier 60 and NGC 4647, nor is there any evidence that they are moving away from each other. Like a couple living together a long time ago, these two galaxies race side by side through cold, dark space.

13. Messier 81

Located near Messier 25, Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center that is 70 million times the mass of the Sun. M81 is home to many short-lived but very hot blue stars. Gravitational interaction with M82 resulted in plumes of hydrogen gas stretching between both galaxies.

About 600 million years ago, the galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 crashed into each other, beginning a massive exchange of stars and galactic matter. Because of their appearance, these galaxies are called antennas.

15. Galaxy Sombrero

The Sombrero Galaxy is one of the most popular among amateur astronomers. It gets its name because it looks like this headdress thanks to its bright core and large central bulge.

16. 2MASX J16270254 + 4328340

This galaxy, blurry in all photographs, is known under the rather complex name 2MASX J16270254 + 4328340. As a result of the merger of two galaxies, a “fine fog consisting of millions of stars” was formed. This "fog" is believed to be slowly dissipating as the galaxy reaches the end of its lifespan.

17. NGC 5793

Not too strange (though very pretty) at first glance, spiral galaxy NGC 5793 is better known for a rare phenomenon: masers. People are familiar with lasers, which emit light in the visible region of the spectrum, but few know about masers, which emit light in the microwave range.

18. Triangulum Galaxy

The photo shows the nebula NGC 604, located in one of the spiral arms of the galaxy Messier 33. More than 200 very hot stars heat the ionized hydrogen in this nebula, causing it to fluoresce.

19. NGC 2685

NGC 2685, also sometimes called a spiral galaxy, is located in the constellation Ursa Major. As one of the first polar ring galaxies found, NGC 2685 has an outer ring of gas and stars orbiting the galaxy's poles, making it one of the rarest types of galaxies. Scientists still don't know what causes these polar rings to form.

20. Messier 94

Messier 94 looks like a terrible hurricane that was removed from orbit on Earth. This galaxy is surrounded by bright blue rings of actively forming stars.

21. Pandora Cluster

Formally known as Abell 2744, this galaxy has been nicknamed the Pandora cluster due to a number of strange phenomena resulting from the collision of several smaller clusters of galaxies. There is real chaos going on inside.

22. NGC 5408

What looks more like a colorful birthday cake in the photos is an irregular galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. It is notable for the fact that it emits extremely powerful x-rays.

23. Whirlpool Galaxy

The Whirlpool Galaxy, officially known as M51a or NGC 5194, is large enough and close to the Milky Way to be visible in the night sky even with binoculars. It was the first spiral galaxy to be classified and is of particular interest to scientists due to its interaction with the dwarf galaxy NGC 5195.

24.SDSS J1038+4849

The galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 is one of the most attractive clusters ever found by astronomers. He looks like a real smiley face in space. The eyes and nose are galaxies, and the curved line of the "mouth" is due to the effects of gravitational lensing.

25. NGC3314a and NGC3314b

Although these two galaxies look like they are colliding, this is actually an optical illusion. There are tens of millions of light years between them.

On November 18, astronomers around the world were thrown into extraordinary emotional excitement by an amazing discovery: a exoplanet, “born” in another galaxy. Experts now say that studying this unique system could provide insight into what fate awaits Earth in the solar system. In addition, studies of the Star and its planet, which were captured by our galaxy, will help astronomers predict the future of the entire solar system after our Star reaches its end life cycle, turning first into a red giant and then into a white dwarf.

exoplanet, which is named HIP 13044b, is a gas giant whose mass exceeds the mass of Jupiter (the largest planet in our system) by 25 percent. But, unlike Jupiter, the orbit of HIP 13044b passes to its Star at a distance of only 5 million kilometers. In order for you to understand how insignificant this distance is, let’s say that a year (that is, a full revolution around the Star) on this celestial body lasts a little more than 16 Earth days. Astronomers suggest that this was not always the case. Most likely, the star, growing, tore the planet from its rather distant orbit (otherwise it would not have been able to survive the red giant stage) and pulled it to a deadly distance.

The star around which the heroine of our story revolves arose in the dwarf galaxy closest to us from 6 to 9 billion years ago. In the process of so-called galactic cannibalism, when one galaxy absorbs another, the Star became part of the Milky Way. After the allotted time, it began to turn into a red giant, its gas atmosphere began to expand, drawing in all its own planets, tearing them apart and destroying them without a trace. And yet, for some reason still unclear to astronomers, exoplanet HIP 13044b survived. It still revolves around its star in a small orbit. Naturally, it cannot contain not only life, but even microorganisms. And yet the mystery will excite the minds of scientists for many years to come.

Interestingly, according to expert analysis, our Sun and the Alien Star are similar celestial bodies, which means that they were born and developed approximately according to the same pattern, but the Prodigal Star is much older than ours. That's why astronomers hope to use observations of the unusual system to understand how the Sun will behave in the next 3 to 6 billion years. It is believed that our star will reach the red giant phase in about 5 billion years, when it exhausts its hydrogen reserves.

In our own solar system, only Mars and the gas giants are likely to escape the fire-breathing embrace of the sun as it turns into a red giant. As for Mercury and Venus, they don’t have a chance. But the dispute over the fate of the Earth is still going on. Perhaps HIP 13044b can resolve it. Scientists believe that after increasing the volume of the sun, humanity will still have a chance to survive. Perhaps one of Saturn's moons will one day become our second home.

For us, non-specialists, the excitement of scientists around cosmic events is sometimes incomprehensible. Well, they found a planet from another galaxy that revolves around its Star. What's wrong with that? But it turns out that so far no one has been able to confirm the existence exoplanets, orbiting stars in other galaxies! The reason is the huge distances that do not allow observations and accurate measurements. So the discovery of HIP 13044b is worth a lot. Its existence confirms the theoretical calculations of astronomers, who believe that not only stars and planets exist, but also intelligent beings in other galaxies.

The total number of exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy is more than 100 billion. An exoplanet is a planet that is outside our solar system. Currently, scientists have discovered only a small fraction of them. About the 10 most incredible planets in this post.

The darkest exoplanet is the distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant TrES-2b.

Measurements have shown that planet TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of light, making it blacker than coal and naturally darker than any planet in the solar system. The work on this planet was published in the journal of the Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices. Planet TrES-2b reflects less light even than black acrylic paint, so it is truly a dark world.

TrES-4

The largest planet found in the Universe is TrES-4. It was discovered in 2006 and is located in the constellation Hercules. The planet, called TrES-4, orbits a star that is about 1,400 light-years away from planet Earth.

Researchers claim that the diameter of the discovered planet is almost 2 times (more precisely 1.7) larger than the diameter of Jupiter (this is the largest planet in the solar system). The temperature of TrES-4 is about 1260 degrees Celsius.

COROT-7b

A year on COROT-7b lasts just over 20 hours. It is not surprising that the weather in this world is, to put it mildly, exotic.

Astronomers have suggested that the planet consists of cast and solid rock, and not of frozen gases, which will certainly boil away under such conditions. The temperature, according to scientists, drops from +2000 C on the illuminated surface to -200 C on the night.

WASP-12b

Astronomers saw a cosmic cataclysm: a star was consuming its own planet, which was in close proximity to it. We are talking about the exoplanet WASP-12b. It was discovered in 2008.

WASP-12b, like most known exoplanets discovered by astronomers, is a large gaseous world. However, unlike most other exoplanets, WASP-12b orbits its star at a very close distance - just over 1.5 million kilometers (75 times closer than Earth to the Sun).

The vast world of WASP-12b has already stared into the face of its death, researchers say. The most important problem of the planet is its size. It has grown to such an extent that it cannot hold its matter against the gravitational forces of its native star. WASP-12b is giving up its matter to the star at a tremendous rate: six billion tons every second. In this case, the planet will be completely destroyed by the star in about ten million years. By cosmic standards, this is quite a bit.

Kepler-10b

Using a space telescope, astronomers were able to discover the smallest rocky exoplanet, with a diameter of about 1.4 times the diameter of Earth.

The new planet was designated Kepler-10b. The star it orbits is located about 560 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco and is similar to our Sun. Belonging to the class of “super-Earths,” Kepler-10b is in an orbit quite close to its star, orbiting it in just 0.84 Earth days, while the temperature on it reaches several thousand degrees Celsius. Scientists estimate that with a diameter of 1.4 times the diameter of the Earth, Kepler-10b has a mass of 4.5 times the Earth's.

HD 189733b

HD 189733b is a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting its star 63 light-years away. And although this planet is similar in size to Jupiter, due to its proximity to its star, it is significantly hotter than the dominant gas giant of our solar system. As with other hot Jupiters found, the rotation of this planet is synchronized with its orbital motion - the planet always faces the star with one side. The orbital period is 2.2 Earth days.

Kepler-16b

Analysis of data on the Kepler-16 system showed that the exoplanet Kepler-16b, discovered in it in June 2011, orbits two stars at once. If an observer could find himself on the surface of the planet, he would see two suns rising and setting, just like on the planet Tatooine from the fantastic Star Wars saga.

In June 2011, scientists announced that the system contained a planet, which they designated Kepler-16b. After conducting a further detailed study, they found that Kepler-16b revolves around a binary star system in an orbit approximately equal to the orbit of Venus, and completes one revolution every 229 days.

Thanks to the joint efforts of amateur astronomers participating in the Planet Hunters project and professional astronomers, a planet was discovered in a four-star system. The planet orbits two stars, which in turn orbit two more stars.

PSR 1257 b and PSR 1257 c

2 planets orbit a dying star.

Kepler-36b and Kepler-36c

Exoplanets Kepler-36b and Kepler-36c - these new planets were discovered by the Kepler telescope. These unusual exoplanets are strikingly close to each other.

Astronomers have discovered a pair of neighboring explanets with different densities orbiting very close to each other. Exoplanets are too close to their star and are not in the so-called "habitable zone" of the star system, that is, the zone where liquid water can exist on the surface, but that is not what makes them interesting. Astronomers were surprised by the very close proximity of these two completely different planets: the orbits of the planets are as close as any other orbits of previously discovered planets.

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The universe is full of unexplained mysteries. In it, for example, there are hypervelocity stars, which, by the way, do not emit light, and clouds of dust that taste like raspberries and smell like rum. There are phenomena in the universe whose understanding clearly goes beyond our world (pun intended here). There are also mysterious planets outside our solar system. These planets, located outside our solar system, were discovered in the last decade of this century, after Alexander Wolschan discovered the first three in 1994. Let's take a closer look at ten of the most mystical of them.

10. Planet Osiris (HD 209458 b)

HD 209458 b is located 150 light-years away from planet Earth in the constellation Pegasus, and is the first exoplanet to be discovered as a planet passes across the star's disk. It is 30% larger than Jupiter, and its orbit is 1/8 the distance between Mercury and the Sun. Naturally, the temperature on the planet is very high: about 1000 Celsius. This is a gas planet, which, under the influence of incredible heat and enormous pressure, is faced with the evaporation of various gases, which leads to the loss of its gravitational field, including the loss of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. Surprised scientists created a completely new classification for this planet and called it chthonic.

9. Stone showers (CoRoT-7b)

CoRoT-7b is a strange and mysterious planet outside the solar system, and the first rocky planet discovered outside solar orbit. It is believed that it was originally a giant gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn, but due to its proximity to the star, it gradually lost all layers of its atmosphere.

Since the planet always faces the star with only one side, the temperature on the illuminated side reaches 2204 Celsius, while on the dark side the temperature is 176 Celsius. Such conditions lead to hard rock precipitation: evaporating rocks fall as liquid rock rain and solidify on the surface.

8. Planet Methuselah (PSR 1620-26 b)

PSR 1620-26 b is likely the oldest planet in the Universe, and it is old enough to be the prototype for many astrophysical phenomena. It is three times older than the Earth and is considered only a billion years younger than the Universe itself, although it is traditionally believed that planets cannot be the same age as the Universe, since at the time of the big bang, favorable conditions and the necessary materials for the formation of planets did not yet exist. Methuselah orbits a double star: a white dwarf and a pulsar, located in a cluster of stars in the constellation Scorpio.

7. Planet from Hell (Gliese 581c)

Gliese 581c is the most suitable for subsequent colonization, except that the conditions on it are truly hellish. It is always turned with one side towards the red dwarf around which it revolves, and the temperature difference on the light and dark sides is such that if you stand on one side, you will immediately evaporate, but as soon as you take a step to the other side, you will immediately freeze . In the narrow, more or less habitable band between these two extremes, other problems exist. The sky of this planet is a hellish red color, since the planet is at the very bottom of the light spectrum we can see, so if there are photosynthetic plants on the planet, then because of this they are all black.

6. Planet – black hole (TrES-2b)

TrES-2b is very similar to Jupiter: they are both almost the same size and it orbits a star similar to the Sun - only it is 760 light-years away. This Jupiter-class gas giant reflects about 1% of the light that hits it. In other words, it absorbs light falling on it so much that it is considered the darkest planet. It is darker than the blackest acrylic paint or charcoal. It is believed that the atmosphere contains special chemicals or connections. Interestingly, with an atmospheric temperature of 982 Celsius, the planet is hot enough to emit a dim, reddish glow, which is likely visible because it completely absorbs all other light.

HD 106906 b is a "perpetually lonely guy" because it hangs out in the outskirts of the Southern Cross constellation, orbiting its star at a distance of 60,000,000,000 kilometers, which is 20 times the distance between Neptune and the Sun. Located nearly 300 light-years from Earth, this super-Jupiter planet, 11 times larger than Jupiter itself, is so far from its star that it simply cannot form enough solid material to fully form. Astrophysicists speculate that it is an unformed star, thus casting doubt on the binary system as it is too small for binary formations.

4. Swollen gas planet (Hat P 1 Hat p 1 o kepler est operando)

HAT-P-1 is a very mysterious planet located outside the solar system, located at a distance of 450 light years from us. It was recently discovered by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It is a giant gas planet about half the size of Jupiter, but the amazing fact is that despite its size, it is so small that its mass is comparable to that of a cork. It's classified as a "hot Jupiter," although it's 25% larger than what models would allow for that classification, which has scared astrophysicists as they try to figure out why it's so "swollen." Scientists suspect that she can float in water, and it is interesting to check how true this fact is.

3. A planet with an incredible number of rings (J1407 b)

J1407 b was discovered in 2012, and data on it were processed and presented only recently. It is located 400 light years from Earth. The most amazing fact about this planet is that it has a ring system like Saturn, but these rings are 200 times larger than the ones around Saturn. Rings so large that if they belonged to Saturn, they would dominate the Earth's sky, surpassing the size of the Moon, and scientists would also observe a 56-day Solar eclipse. The gaps between the rings are believed to represent orbiting exomoons around this exoplanet.

2. Planet of Burning Ice (Gliese 436 b)

Gliese 436 b is another planet from the Gliese system. It is 20 times larger than Earth, about the size of Neptune. The planet is 6.9 million kilometers from its star, compared to Earth, which is 150 million kilometers from the Sun. The planet's temperature is 438 Celsius and its surface is covered in burning ice. The planet's enormous gravitational force keeps water molecules too close together to evaporate, so they don't leave the planet. Hot ice is called ice-ten, after the substance in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle.

1. Diamond planet (55 Cancer e)

Discovered in 2014, 55 Cancri e is twice the size of Earth and 8 times its mass. This planet is also called “super-Earth”. In addition to graphite and other silicates, the planet's composition mainly includes diamond. One day, a star from a binary system began to “eat” this planet, ultimately leaving only a rocky core. Its temperature is about 2148 degrees Celsius. The value of the diamond planet's subsoil is 26.9 nonillion (1054) dollars, which is 384 quintillion (1018) times the Earth's GDP, which is 74 trillion dollars. Extraction of just 0.187% of its subsoil would cover the foreign debt of all governments on Earth, amounting to 50 trillion dollars. They only have to cover a distance of 40 light years.

There are about 200 exoplanets already discovered in the Universe. The often striking characteristics of these mysterious and amazing planets, located outside the solar system, completely baffle the entire world of science, especially when the scientific facts about these exoplanets sound much more extraordinary than stories from science fiction.

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A galaxy is a large formation of stars, gas, and dust that is held together by gravity. These largest compounds in the Universe can vary in shape and size. Most space objects are part of a particular galaxy. These are stars, planets, satellites, nebulae, black holes and asteroids. Some of the galaxies have large amounts of invisible dark energy. Due to the fact that galaxies are separated by empty space, they are figuratively called oases in the cosmic desert.

	Elliptical galaxy	Spiral galaxy	Wrong galaxy
Spheroidal component	The entire galaxy	Eat	Very weak
Star disk	None or weakly expressed	Main component	Main component
Gas and dust disk	No	Eat	Eat
Spiral branches	No or only near the core	Eat	No
Active cores	Meet	Meet	No
	20%	55%	5%

Our galaxy

The closest star to us, the Sun, is one of the billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Looking at the starry night sky, it’s hard not to notice a wide strip strewn with stars. The ancient Greeks called the cluster of these stars the Galaxy.

If we had the opportunity to look at this star system from the outside, we would notice an oblate ball in which there are over 150 billion stars. Our galaxy has dimensions that are hard to imagine. A ray of light travels from one side to the other for hundreds of thousands of Earth years! The center of our Galaxy is occupied by a core, from which huge spiral branches filled with stars extend. The distance from the Sun to the core of the Galaxy is 30 thousand light years. The solar system is located on the outskirts of the Milky Way.

Stars in the Galaxy, despite the huge accumulation of cosmic bodies, are rare. For example, the distance between the nearest stars is tens of millions of times greater than their diameters. It cannot be said that stars are scattered randomly in the Universe. Their location depends on the gravitational forces that hold celestial body in a certain plane. Stellar systems with their own gravitational fields are called galaxies. In addition to stars, the galaxy includes gas and interstellar dust.

Composition of galaxies.

The Universe is also made up of many other galaxies. The closest ones to us are distant at a distance of 150 thousand light years. They can be seen in the sky of the southern hemisphere in the form of small foggy spots. They were first described by Pigafett, a member of the Magellanic expedition around the world. They entered science under the name of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

The closest galaxy to us is the Andromeda Nebula. It is very large in size, so it is visible from Earth with ordinary binoculars, and in clear weather, even with the naked eye.

The very structure of the galaxy resembles a giant spiral convex in space. On one of the spiral arms, ¾ of the distance from the center, is the Solar System. Everything in the galaxy revolves around the central core and is subject to the force of its gravity. In 1962, astronomer Edwin Hubble classified galaxies depending on their shape. The scientist divided all galaxies into elliptical, spiral, irregular and barred galaxies.

In the part of the Universe accessible to astronomical research, there are billions of galaxies. Collectively, astronomers call them the Metagalaxy.

Galaxies of the Universe

Galaxies are represented by large groups of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity. They can vary significantly in shape and size. Most space objects belong to some galaxy. These are black holes, asteroids, stars with satellites and planets, nebulae, neutron satellites.

Most galaxies in the Universe contain enormous amounts of invisible dark energy. Since the space between different galaxies is considered empty, they are often called oases in the void of space. For example, a star called the Sun is one of the billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy located in our Universe. The Solar System is located ¾ of the distance from the center of this spiral. In this galaxy, everything constantly moves around the central core, which obeys its gravity. However, the core also moves with the galaxy. At the same time, all galaxies move at super speeds.
Astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1962 carried out a logical classification of the galaxies of the Universe, taking into account their shape. Now galaxies are divided into 4 main groups: elliptical, spiral, barred and irregular galaxies.
What is the largest galaxy in our Universe?
The largest galaxy in the Universe is a supergiant lenticular galaxy located in the Abell 2029 cluster.

Spiral galaxies

They are galaxies whose shape resembles a flat spiral disk with a bright center (core). The Milky Way is a typical spiral galaxy. Spiral galaxies are usually called with the letter S; they are divided into 4 subgroups: Sa, So, Sc and Sb. Galaxies belonging to the So group are distinguished by bright nuclei that do not have spiral arms. As for the Sa galaxies, they are distinguished by dense spiral arms tightly wound around the central core. The arms of Sc and Sb galaxies rarely surround the core.

Spiral galaxies of the Messier catalog

Barred galaxies

Bar galaxies are similar to spiral galaxies, but have one difference. In such galaxies, spirals begin not from the core, but from the bridges. About 1/3 of all galaxies fall into this category. They are usually designated by the letters SB. In turn, they are divided into 3 subgroups Sbc, SBb, SBa. The difference between these three groups is determined by the shape and length of the jumpers, where, in fact, the arms of the spirals begin.

Spiral galaxies with the Messier catalog bar

Elliptical galaxies

The shape of galaxies can vary from perfectly round to elongated oval. Their distinctive feature is the absence of a central bright core. They are designated by the letter E and are divided into 6 subgroups (according to shape). Such forms are designated from E0 to E7. The former have an almost round shape, while the E7 are characterized by an extremely elongated shape.

Elliptical galaxies of the Messier catalog

Irregular galaxies

They do not have any pronounced structure or shape. Irregular galaxies are usually divided into 2 classes: IO and Im. The most common is the Im class of galaxies (it has only a slight hint of structure). In some cases, helical residues are visible. IO belongs to the class of galaxies that are chaotic in shape. The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are a prime example of the Im class.

Irregular galaxies of the Messier catalog

Table of characteristics of the main types of galaxies

	Elliptical galaxy	Spiral galaxy	Wrong galaxy
Spheroidal component	The entire galaxy	Eat	Very weak
Star disk	None or weakly expressed	Main component	Main component
Gas and dust disk	No	Eat	Eat
Spiral branches	No or only near the core	Eat	No
Active cores	Meet	Meet	No
Percentage of total galaxies	20%	55%	5%

Large portrait of galaxies

Not long ago, astronomers began working on a joint project to identify the location of galaxies throughout the Universe. Their goal is to obtain a more detailed picture of the overall structure and shape of the Universe on large scales. Unfortunately, the scale of the universe is difficult for many people to comprehend. Take our galaxy, which consists of more than a hundred billion stars. There are billions more galaxies in the Universe. Distant galaxies have been discovered, but we see their light as it was almost 9 billion years ago (we are separated by such a great distance).

Astronomers learned that most galaxies belong to a certain group (it became known as a “cluster”). The Milky Way is part of a cluster, which in turn consists of forty known galaxies. Typically, most of these clusters are part of an even larger grouping called superclusters.

Our cluster is part of a supercluster, which is commonly called the Virgo cluster. Such a massive cluster consists of more than 2 thousand galaxies. At the time when astronomers created a map of the location of these galaxies, superclusters began to take a concrete form. Large superclusters have gathered around what appear to be giant bubbles or voids. What kind of structure this is, no one yet knows. We don't understand what might be inside these voids. According to the assumption, they may be filled with a certain type of dark matter unknown to scientists or have empty space inside. It will be a long time before we know the nature of such voids.

Galactic Computing

Edwin Hubble is the founder of galactic exploration. He is the first to determine how to calculate the exact distance to a galaxy. In his research, he relied on the method of pulsating stars, which are better known as Cepheids. The scientist was able to notice a connection between the period needed to complete one pulsation of brightness and the energy that the star releases. The results of his research became a major breakthrough in the field of galactic research. In addition, he discovered that there is a correlation between the red spectrum emitted by a galaxy and its distance (the Hubble constant).

Nowadays, astronomers can measure the distance and speed of a galaxy by measuring the amount of redshift in the spectrum. It is known that all galaxies in the Universe are moving away from each other. The farther a galaxy is from Earth, the greater its movement speed.

To visualize this theory, just imagine yourself driving a car moving at a speed of 50 km per hour. The car in front of you is driving 50 km per hour faster, which means that its speed is 100 km per hour. There is another car in front of him, which is moving faster by another 50 km per hour. Even though the speed of all 3 cars will be different by 50 km per hour, the first car is actually moving away from you 100 km per hour faster. Since the red spectrum speaks about the speed of the galaxy moving away from us, the following is obtained: the greater the red shift, the faster the galaxy moves and the greater its distance from us.

We now have new tools to help scientists search for new galaxies. Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to see what they could only dream of before. The high power of this telescope provides good visibility of even small details in nearby galaxies and allows you to study more distant ones that have not yet been known to anyone. Currently, new space observation instruments are under development, and in the near future they will help to gain a deeper understanding of the structure of the Universe.

Types of galaxies

• Spiral galaxies. The shape resembles a flat spiral disk with a pronounced center, the so-called core. Our Milky Way galaxy falls into this category. In this section of the portal site you will find many different articles describing space objects of our Galaxy.
• Barred galaxies. They resemble spiral ones, only they differ from them in one significant difference. The spirals do not extend from the core, but from the so-called jumpers. One third of all galaxies in the Universe can be attributed to this category.
• Elliptical galaxies have different shapes: from perfectly round to oval elongated. Compared to spiral ones, they lack a central, pronounced core.
• Irregular galaxies do not have a characteristic shape or structure. They cannot be classified into any of the types listed above. There are much fewer irregular galaxies in the vastness of the Universe.

Astronomers have recently launched a joint project to identify the location of all the galaxies in the Universe. Scientists hope to get a clearer picture of its structure on a large scale. The size of the Universe is difficult for human thought and understanding to estimate. Our galaxy alone is a collection of hundreds of billions of stars. And there are billions of such galaxies. We can see light from discovered distant galaxies, but not even imply that we are looking into the past, because the light beam reaches us over tens of billions of years, such a great distance separates us.

Astronomers also associate most galaxies with certain groups called clusters. Our Milky Way belongs to a cluster that consists of 40 explored galaxies. Such clusters are combined into large groups called superclusters. The cluster with our galaxy is part of the Virgo supercluster. This giant cluster contains more than 2 thousand galaxies. After scientists began to draw a map of the location of these galaxies, superclusters acquired certain shapes. Most galactic superclusters were surrounded by giant voids. No one knows what could be inside these voids: outer space like interplanetary space or a new form of matter. It will take a long time to solve this mystery.

Interaction of galaxies

No less interesting for scientists is the question of the interaction of galaxies as components of cosmic systems. It's no secret that space objects are in constant motion. Galaxies are no exception to this rule. Some types of galaxies could cause a collision or merger of two cosmic systems. If you understand how these space objects appear, large-scale changes as a result of their interaction become more understandable. During the collision of two space systems, a gigantic amount of energy splashes out. The meeting of two galaxies in the vastness of the Universe is an even more probable event than the collision of two stars. Collisions of galaxies do not always end with an explosion. A small space system can freely pass by its larger counterpart, changing its structure only slightly.

Thus, the formation of formations similar appearance on long corridors. They contain stars and gaseous zones, and new stars are often formed. There are times when galaxies do not collide, but only lightly touch each other. However, even such an interaction triggers a chain of irreversible processes that lead to huge changes in the structure of both galaxies.

What future awaits our galaxy?

As scientists suggest, it is possible that in the distant future the Milky Way will be able to absorb a tiny cosmic-sized satellite system, which is located at a distance of 50 light years from us. Research shows that this satellite has a long life potential, but if it collides with its giant neighbor, it will most likely end its separate existence. Astronomers also predict a collision between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Nebula. Galaxies move towards each other at the speed of light. The wait for a probable collision is approximately three billion Earth years. However, whether it will actually happen now is difficult to speculate due to the lack of data on the movement of both space systems.

Description of galaxies onKvant. Space

The portal site will take you to the world of interesting and fascinating space. You will learn the nature of the structure of the Universe, become familiar with the structure of famous large galaxies and their components. By reading articles about our galaxy, we become more clear about some of the phenomena that can be observed in the night sky.

All galaxies are at a great distance from Earth. Only three galaxies can be seen with the naked eye: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and the Andromeda Nebula. It is impossible to count all the galaxies. Scientists estimate that their number is about 100 billion. The spatial distribution of galaxies is uneven - one region may contain a huge number of them, while the second will not contain even a single small galaxy. Astronomers were unable to separate images of galaxies from individual stars until the early 90s. At this time, there were about 30 galaxies with individual stars. All of them were assigned to the Local Group. In 1990, a majestic event took place in the development of astronomy as a science - the Hubble Telescope was launched into Earth orbit. It was this technique, as well as new ground-based 10-meter telescopes, that made it possible to see a significantly larger number of resolved galaxies.

Today, the “astronomical minds” of the world are scratching their heads about the role of dark matter in the construction of galaxies, which manifests itself only in gravitational interaction. For example, in some large galaxies it makes up about 90% of the total mass, while dwarf galaxies may not contain it at all.

Evolution of galaxies

Scientists believe that the emergence of galaxies is a natural stage in the evolution of the Universe, which took place under the influence of gravitational forces. Approximately 14 billion years ago, the formation of protoclusters in the primary substance began. Further, under the influence of various dynamic processes, the separation of galactic groups took place. The abundance of galaxy shapes is explained by the diversity of initial conditions in their formation.

The contraction of the galaxy takes about 3 billion years. Over a given period of time, the gas cloud turns into a star system. Star formation occurs under the influence of gravitational compression of gas clouds. After reaching a certain temperature and density in the center of the cloud, sufficient for the start of thermonuclear reactions, a new star is formed. Massive stars are formed from thermonuclear chemical elements that are more massive than helium. These elements create the primary helium-hydrogen environment. During enormous supernova explosions, elements heavier than iron are formed. It follows from this that the galaxy consists of two generations of stars. The first generation is the oldest stars, consisting of helium, hydrogen and very small amounts of heavy elements. Second-generation stars have a more noticeable admixture of heavy elements because they form from primordial gas enriched in heavy elements.

In modern astronomy, galaxies as cosmic structures are given a special place. The types of galaxies, the features of their interaction, similarities and differences are studied in detail, and a forecast of their future is made. This area still contains a lot of unknowns that require additional study. Modern science has resolved many questions regarding the types of construction of galaxies, but there are also many blank spots associated with the formation of these cosmic systems. The current pace of modernization of research equipment and the development of new methodologies for studying cosmic bodies give hope for a significant breakthrough in the future. One way or another, galaxies will always be in the center scientific research. And this is based not only on human curiosity. Having received data on the patterns of development of space systems, we will be able to predict the future of our galaxy called the Milky Way.

The most interesting news, scientific, and original articles about the study of galaxies will be provided to you by the website portal. Here you can find exciting videos, high-quality images from satellites and telescopes that will not leave you indifferent. Dive into the world of unknown space with us!