Galaxy: Catanduanes State University

Catanduanes State University
Panganiban Campus
Panganiban, Catanduanes
TOPIC
Galaxy
SUBJECT
Astronomy
REPORTER
Juvy R. Vallespin
PROFESSOR
Manuel Torio
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars,
stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter, an
important but poorly understood component. The word galaxy is derived from the
Greek galaxias, literally "milky", a reference to the Milky Way. Examples of
galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (107) stars[3] to giants with
one hundred trillion (1014) stars, each orbiting their galaxy's own center of mass.
Galaxies contain varying numbers of planets, star systems, star clusters
and types of interstellar clouds. In between these objects is a sparse interstellar
medium of gas, dust, and cosmic rays. Super massive black holes reside at the
center of most galaxies. They are thought to be the primary driver of active
galactic nuclei found at the core of some galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy is known
to harbor at least one such object.
Galaxies have been historically categorized according to their apparent
shape, usually referred to as their visual morphology. A common form is the
elliptical galaxy, which has an ellipse-shaped light profile. Spiral galaxies are diskshaped with dusty, curving arms. Those with irregular or unusual shapes are
known as irregular galaxies and typically originate from disruption by the
gravitational pull of neighboring galaxies. Such interactions between nearby
galaxies, which may ultimately result in a merger, sometimes induce significantly
increased incidents of star formation leading to starburst galaxies.
There are probably more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable
universe. Most are 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs in diameter and usually separated
by distances on the order of millions of parsecs (or mega parsecs). Intergalactic
space (the space between galaxies) is filled with a tenuous gas of an average
density less than one atom per cubic meter. The majority of galaxies are
organized into a neither fully random nor fully deterministic set of associations
known as galaxy groups and clusters, which, in turn usually form larger super
clusters. At the largest scale, these associations are generally arranged into
sheets and filaments, which are surrounded by immense voids.
Appearance and Classification
As we have pointed out, the extragalactic nebulae appeared in the small telescope of the early
observers as faint, diffuse patches of light. They seemed to be either circular or elliptical. Internal
structure was first noted when large telescopes became available. In 1845, lord Rosse (William
Parsons) and his assistants, at Parsontown in Ireland, discovered that certain nebulae were spiral in
form.
In 1925, Hubble proposed a galaxy classification that has been accepted, with certain
modifications, by astronomers the world over. The system divided galaxies into four main classes, as
follows:
1. The elliptical (E). They have a smooth structure, from a bright center out to vaguely defined
edges.
2. The normal spiral (S). They show spiral arms or whorls emerging from a bright nucleus.
3. The barred spiral (SB). Their spiral arms emerge at the extremities of a bar across the nucles.
4. The irregular galaxies (I). Some of these are of the same type as the two galaxies called the
Magellanic Clouds and are classified as magellanic irregular (Im). Other are so chaotic in
appearance that they are simply listen as irregular (I). hubble distinguished three stage among
both normal and barred spiral, labeling them a, and c. the relative size of the nucleus decreases
from a to c; the development of the arms increases from a to c.
Etymology
The word galaxy derives from the Greek term for our own galaxy, galaxias
("milky one"), or kyklos ("circle") galaktikos ("milky") [11] for its appearance as a
lighter colored band in the sky. In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a
mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Hera's breast while she is asleep so that
the baby will drink her divine milk and will thus become immortal. A Hera wake up
while breastfeeding and then realizes she is nursing an unknown baby: she
pushes the baby away and a jet of her milk sprays the night sky, producing the
faint band of light known as the Milky Way.
In the astronomical literature, the capitalized word 'Galaxy' is used to refer
to our galaxy, the Milky Way, to distinguish it from the billions of other galaxies.
The English term Milky Way can be traced back to a story by Chaucer:
When William Herschel constructed his catalog of deep sky objects in 1786,
he used the name spiral nebula for certain objects such as M31. These would
later be recognized as immense conglomerations of stars, when the true distance
to these objects began to be appreciated, and they would be termed island
universes. However, the word Universe was understood to mean the entirety of
existence, so this expression fell into disuse and the objects instead became
known as galaxies.[14]
Nomenclature
Tens of thousands of these galaxies have now been catalogued. Only a few
have been given a well-established name, such as the Andromeda Galaxy, the
Magellan Clouds, the Whirlpool Galaxy and the Sombrero Galaxy. Astronomers
work with numbers from certain catalogues, such as the Messier catalogue, the
NGC (New General Catalogue), the IC (Index Catalogue), the CGCG, (Catalogue of
Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies), the MCG (Morphological Catalogue of
Galaxies) and UGC (Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies ). All of the well-
known galaxies appear in one or more of these catalogues but each time under a
different number. For example, the Messier 109, a spiral system which has the
number 109 in the catalogue of Messier also codes NCG3992, UGC6937, CGCG
269-023, MCG +09-20-044 and PGC 37617.
Because it is customary in science to assign names to most of the studied
objects, even to the smallest ones, the Belgian astrophysicist Gerard Bodifee and
the classicist Michel Berger started a new catalogue (CNG-Catalogue of Named
Galaxies)[17] in which a thousand of well-known galaxies are given meaningful,
descriptive names in Latin (or Latinized Greek)[18] in accordance with the binomial
nomenclature that one uses in other sciences such as biology, anatomy,
paleontology and in other fields of astronomy such as the geography of Mars. One
of the arguments to do so is that these impressive objects deserve better than
uninspired codes. For instance Bodifee and Berger propose the informal,
descriptive name "Callimorphus Ursae Majoris" for the well-formed barred galaxy
Messier 109 in Ursa Major.
Dimensions of Galaxies
Once the distance of a galaxy is known, its intrinsic (actual) dimensions can
be derived from its apparent dimension, measured on a photographic plate.
However, since the galaxies do not have a sharply defined boundary it is difficult
to determine this dimension exactly. To compare the dimensions of galaxies of
various types, it is necessary to study a fairly large number of them. They must
all be observed under the same conditions.
In May 1986, the largest galaxy, a spiral galaxy, was discovered accidently
by astronomer Christopher Impey of the University of Arizona, called Malin 1. It
is 715 light years away from earth, 770,000 light years in diameter, and 100
billion times as massive as our son, Malin 1 is 10 times biggest and 100 times
fainter than normal galaxies.
Generally speaking, galaxies vary in size from dwarf system having
diameters of 10,000 light-years or thereabouts, to giant system with diameters
ranging up to 100,000 light-years. Dwarf galaxies are many times more numerals
than the giants.
Rotation and Masses of Galaxies
The flatness of many galaxies, when see edgewise and the presence of
spiral arms suggested very early that the stars that composed them were rotating
around the nucleus or center of these systems. The rotation of a galaxy can be
observed and measured by the displacement of the lines in its spectrum,
compared by the displacement of the lines in its spectrum, compared with
reference lines in the spectrum of a fixed terrestrial object. If the galaxy is
inclined to the line of sight at an angle of less than 90, one side is moving away
from the observer, and the lines of this section are displaced toward the red part
of the spectrum. The others side is approapching, and the lines are displaeced
toward the blue of the spectrum.
Interactions between Galaxies
The close grouping of galaxies occasionally bring out spectacular

integration effects between neighboring systems. These effects have been
specially investigated by F. Zwicky at the Palomar Mountain Observatory. He
found that they take a great verity of form, depending on the distance between
the galaxies, their sizes, their masses, and probably various physical properties
still little understood. Very often, ribbonlike filaments stream out from one galaxy
to another. A filament may also emerge in the opposite direction. In certain cases,
the outer arm of a spiral joins with a corresponding arm of a neighboring galaxy.
When two galaxies are in collision and intermingle, vast antennas like streamers
emerge from a chaotic central mass. In a few instance, galaxies which seem
isolated various distortions for which no visible companion can be consider
responsible.
The mechanism of these interactions is not yet clearly understood. The
presence of bright emission lines in the spectra of interacting galaxies indicates
an unusual state of excitation of the interstellar gas. But no emission lines have
been observed in the extended filaments and appendages of weakly interacting
galaxies. This suggests s that the luminosity of these filaments is due to starlight
and not to the excitation of interstellar gas. It is difficult to understand how such
long filaments of matter can remain stable for any length of time.
Observation history
The realization that we live in a galaxy, and that there were, in fact, many
other galaxies, parallels discoveries that were made about the Milky Way and
other nebulae in the night sky.

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The close grouping of galaxies occasionally bring out spectacular

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