> How many galaxies are there in the Universe

How many galaxies exist in the observable universe: research, calculation on the size, mass and volume of the Universe, Hubble review, future role of James Webb.

Science is interesting because it does not get hung up on facts, but constantly revises them, creates new theories and looks for better ways to solve problems. Sometimes in this process she manages to find aspects that were unknown before. That's why it's so interesting to know how many galaxies are in the universe?

Distant galaxies captured by the Hubble telescope

How many galaxies are there in the Universe?

So, the numbers are constantly changing, as are various facts, such as the total number of galaxies in space. How many galaxies are there in total? The observable Universe spans 13.8 billion light years in all directions. That is, the most distant light left its point 13.8 billion years ago. But let's not forget about the expansion, which increases this distance to 46 billion light years. That is, what was visible or ultraviolet radiation in the past has shifted to infrared and microwave radiation at the very edge of the accessible Universe.

We know the universal volume and mass (3.3 x 10 54 kg, including ordinary matter and dark matter). In addition, the relationship between regular matter and dark matter is open to us, so we can calculate total regular mass.

Once upon a time, astronomers divided the total mass by the number of observed galaxies in Hubble and counted 200 billion.

Now scientists have used a new technique for recalculation. They used photos from the Hubble Telescope and looked into an empty part of the sky to count the number of galaxies. It's about about the Hubble Deep Fiel, thanks to which it was possible to obtain an incredibly amazing picture. You can explore this Hubble image below.

From this photograph they created a three-dimensional map showing the size and location of the galaxy. To do this, we used knowledge about the nearest galaxies (for example, 50 neighbors). Having learned which of the large galaxies were larger, they brought in smaller and fainter ones that were not displayed in the image.

That is, if the distant Universe resembles the known one, then the galactic structures are also repeated. This does not mean that the Universe is much larger than expected or that there are more stars in it. It just accommodates more galaxies with fewer stars. There are large main galaxies, followed by smaller ones and so on to dwarf ones.

But visible galaxies are just the tip of the iceberg. For each imprinted one, there are 9 more weaker and unnoticeable ones. Of course, it won't be long before we can capture them too. In 2018, everyone is expecting the appearance of the powerful James Webb telescope, whose area is 25 m2 (Hubble’s is 4.5 m2). Those faint spots that now seem like stars to us will become clear and understandable objects for James Webb.

If galaxies are everywhere, then why can't we see them with the naked eye? It's all about Olbers' paradox, described in 1700. The point is, no matter where you look, you will always hit a star. This means that the space should be bright, but it is dark. How so? The same paradox applies to galaxies that for some reason you can't see.

So, galaxies are everywhere. But they are red-shifted from the visible spectrum to the infrared, so the retina simply does not perceive them. If you look at everything in microwaves, then the space will glow.

According to calculations, there are 10 times more galaxies in the Universe than previously thought - 2 trillion. But there is no need to multiply the number of stars or mass, since these numbers remain the same.

Now you know how many galaxies there are. But what will happen with the appearance of James Webb? Will there be more galaxies? Or some new one will open interesting information? The universe hides many secrets, so you can expect anything.

Everyone has ever thought about how large and unknown the world around us is. Being part of an immeasurably vast Universe, we often and curiously ask ourselves questions: “How big is the Universe?”, “What does it consist of?”, “Is there intelligent life besides us?”, “How many galaxies are there in the Universe?” and many others.

This article seeks to answer some of them and expand the general knowledge and understanding of the Universe and its constituent parts and systems.

Universe

The universe includes everything that exists. From cosmic dust to giant stars; from the smallest hydrogen atoms to subjective ideas and abstract concepts. Everything that is located and functions in space is part of the Universe.

It is studied by various sciences. Physics, astronomy and cosmology are pioneers in the study of the Universe in objective reality. They are the ones who are trying to answer the question of what the cosmos is made of or how many galaxies there are in the Universe. Philosophy from its first days has been studying the Universe in subjective reality. The mother of all sciences is not concerned about how many galaxies there are in the Universe, but about how it and its perception affect our life and development.

Given the incredible size of the Universe and the mass of bodies and substances found in it, it is not surprising that we have accumulated a huge amount of knowledge; It is also not surprising that many more questions remain unanswered. Only a small part of the Universe in certain moment time is amenable to physical study, we can only guess about the rest. The past and future of the Universe are only assumptions and predictions, and its present is revealed to us only to a tiny fraction.

What do we know for sure about her?

We are absolutely sure that the Universe is huge, and with a high degree of probability we can say that it is immeasurable. To measure distances between cosmic objects, a completely “universal” unit is used - the light year. This is the distance that a beam of light can travel in a year.

The matter that makes up the Universe surrounds our planet at a distance of at least 93 billion light years. For comparison, our galaxy occupies a place that can be covered in 100 thousand light years.

Scientists divide cosmic matter into a cluster of atoms - understandable and studied physical matter, which is also called baryonic matter. However, most of the Universe is occupied by unexplored dark energy, the properties of which are unknown to scientists. Also, a considerable part of the visible space of the Universe is occupied by dark or hidden mass, which scientists call invisible matter.

The accumulation of baryonic matter forms stars, planets and other cosmic bodies, which, in turn, form galaxies. The latter are in motion and moving away from each other. It is impossible to answer the question of how many galaxies there are in the Universe with precision.

What can we only guess?

The past of the Universe and the process of its formation are precisely unknown. Scientists suggest that the Universe is almost 14 billion years old and formed after the expansion of concentrated hot matter, which in cosmology is called the Big Bang Theory.

Scientists obtain everything on which the main theoretical models of the evolution of the Universe are based by observing the part of it visible to us. It is impossible to prove how true any of the currently existing models is. Most scientists agree with the theory of the expansion of the Universe - after the “big bang”, cosmic matter continues its movement from its center.

It is worth remembering that all these models are theoretical, and it is impossible to test them in practice for many reasons. Therefore, it is worth concentrating on accessible and proven knowledge that answers the questions about how many stars are in the galaxy, and how many galaxies are in the Universe. Photo taken with modern technologies, called Hubble (for Hubble Ultra Deep Field), allows you to see the location of many galaxies in a small visible part of the sky.

What is a galaxy?

A galaxy is a collection of stars, gas, dust and hidden mass. The gravitational interaction of baryonic matter and dark cosmic mass unites the galaxy into a tightly connected group of cosmic bodies. Galaxies move at a certain speed, which confirms the theory of the expansion of the Universe, but the gravitational center of the galaxy does not allow the movement of the Universe to influence its formation. All bodies in the galaxy revolve around a gravitational center.

Galaxies may be various types, sizes and consist of many systems. There is no single answer to the question of how many galaxies there are in the Universe, since the existence of two identical galaxies is unlikely. By type they are divided into:

• elliptical;
• spiral;
• lenticular;
• with jumper;
• incorrect.

Based on their size, galaxies are classified as dwarf, medium, large and giant. There is no clear answer to the question of how many systems there are in a galaxy, since the number of systems and star clusters depends on the set various factors, such as the gravitational field of stars, the size of the galaxy, and many others.

Scale of galaxies

Each galaxy consists of star systems, clusters and interstellar clouds. Several neighboring galaxies can be attracted to each other and form a local group. It can contain from three to 30 galaxies of various types and sizes.

Clusters of local groups, in turn, form huge clouds of stars called superclusters of galaxies. The gravitational interdependence of galaxies in relation to their neighbors from the local group, as well as from the supercluster, is based on the interaction of atoms of baryonic matter with hidden matter.

Milky Way

Our home galaxy - Milky Way- is a disk-shaped spiral with a jumper. The core of the galaxy is made up of old stars - red giants. The Milky Way shares its local group with two neighboring galaxies: the Andromeda nebula and the Triangulum galaxy. The supercluster to which they belong is called the Virgo Supercluster.

In the local group of the Milky Way, in addition to the three large galaxies, there are about 40 dwarf satellite galaxies, which are attracted by the stronger gravitational fields of their large neighbors. There may be as many black holes and dark matter spaces in the Virgo Supercluster as there are galaxies. Absolutely in the Milky Way exact amount stars are unknown, but according to rough estimates there are 200 billion of them. The diameter of the Milky Way is one hundred thousand light years, and the average thickness of the disk is one thousand light years.

The youngest stars and their clusters are located closer to the surface of the disk, while the center of the galactic core, according to scientists, is a huge black hole, around which there is a very high concentration of stars. The main star of our system, the Sun, is located closer to the surface of the disk.

solar system

The solar system is 4.5 billion years old and is located in the shape of a disk. The heaviest element of the system is its center - the Sun; it accounts for almost all the mass, which determines the strong gravitational attraction. The eight planets orbiting it make up only 0.14% of total mass systems. Earth belongs to the four small terrestrial planets, along with Mars, Venus and Mercury. The remaining planets are called gas giants because they consist mostly of gases.

Now not a single astronomer can say with accuracy how many galaxies can be observed in the sky modern means. In 1934, the American astronomer Edwin Hubble calculated that the number of stellar islands that he could “see” using the then largest telescope with a mirror diameter of 2.5 m was over 5 million. But since then, several 8 -m and two 10-m telescopes. With the 6th telescope, astronomers could already observe 1.4 billion galaxies. Of course, no astronomer can see so many objects. Calculations made in small area sky, which were then enlarged to take into account the area of ​​the entire celestial sphere.

And here space telescope, named after E. Hubble, about 50,000 billion galaxies are already available for viewing! Compare this figure with the number of inhabitants on Earth - there are about 10,000 galaxies for each! And in each galaxy there are up to 100 billion stars. So, after this, believe the astrologers who claim that the stars in the sky determine the fate of every person on Earth. But although the figures given are large, they are still far from infinity.

The appearance of a galaxy is related to its characteristics: brighter galaxies are also more massive. The mass of a galaxy is determined from the velocity curve, that is, the dependence of the rotation speed on the distance to the center of the galaxy.

The Milky Way, 100,000 light-years in diameter, is flying at 90 km/s towards its neighbor Andromeda, while they are part of the Local Group, which extends over millions of light-years. In turn, the Local Group of galaxies moves at a speed of approximately 600 km/s, attracted by superclusters in the constellations Virgo, Hydra and Centauri, the nearest of which is more than 65 million light years away from us.

Sets of superclusters form gigantic chains stretching hundreds of millions and billions of light years. In significantly to a greater extent these gigantic spatial structures are formed by: a) - the gravitational field of the invisible “hidden mass” or “dark matter”, the radiation of which is not detected by our instruments, and also b) - the anti-gravitational effect of “dark energy”, which contributes to the expansion of the Metagalaxy.

The reality of the Cosmos is multidimensional, multidimensional and multitemporal, i.e. three-dimensional space is only a small part of what actually exists. Scientists studying the laws of physics in three-dimensional space extrapolate them to all worlds of the Cosmos, i.e. They consider laws to be universal and unshakable, which is a huge mistake. For example, the well-known constant - the speed of light C - is not the maximum speed for nature; there are energies that move faster speed Sveta. Time t is also not constant. It can have a zero value and even an inverse value (with negative sign). Therefore, formulas in which C and t appear are correct only for terrestrial processes.

The paradox of the hidden mass of the Universe, discovered by scientists, has not yet found an explanation (only 1/40 of the mass of the Universe is observed). It only confirms the idea of ​​parallel universes that indirectly influence the processes taking place in the visible mass of the Universe. Where are these 39/40ths of the mass of matter hidden? You will find the answer to the question below.

Space in a simplified view resembles soap suds, where spaces, in contact with each other, form energy structures of various scales. Many outstanding astronomers have already come to the discovery of the cellular structure of the Universe.

The real structure of the Cosmos is even more complex - the spheres of worlds overlap each other many times, forming complex interweavings of spheres (worlds within worlds).

Researchers believe that there are several billion different galaxies in the visible region of our Universe. And in its region, which cannot be observed with telescopes, there are even more galaxies. According to scientists, there may be about 7 trillion dwarf galaxies in this invisible region of the Universe.

According to scientists, in the visible part of our Universe there are: 10 million superstructures, 25 billion galactic groups, 350 billion large galaxies, 7 trillion dwarf galaxies, 30 billion trillion stars.

There are 10-20 times more galaxies in the observable Universe than previously thought

• Popular Science,
• Astronomy

Image taken by the Hubble telescope (Source: NASA/ESA)

The Hubble telescope helped astronomers make most interesting discovery, which could have an impact on the entire future of astronomical science. As it turns out, there are 10-20 times more galaxies in the observable Universe than scientists previously thought. This conclusion was made after analyzing a large number of photographs of deep space sent to Earth by the Hubble telescope. In the course of their work, scientists studied other images taken by astronomers at observatories on Earth.

The conclusion that there are more galaxies in the Universe than people previously thought was made by scientists from the University of Nottingham, led by Christopher Conselice. Most of these galaxies (about 90%) are relatively small and faint, so they are not easy to spot. According to scientists, such galaxies are similar to satellites of the Milky Way. "We missed the vast majority of galaxies because they are too dim and very far away," says Professor Conselis.

“The actual number of galaxies in the Universe is one of the fundamental questions in astronomy, and the fact that more than 90% of galaxies have not yet been studied is frightening. Who knows what interesting properties of these objects we will discover when we begin to study galaxies using new generation telescopes?” the scientist asks.

The Hubble Orbital Telescope helps experts study the visible part of the Universe. It has been working for about 20 years, and during all this time earth scientists received a huge amount vital information, including data on the number of galaxies in the Universe. Previously, it was believed that there were 100-200 billion galaxies in the observable Universe. But it seems that this number can be safely multiplied by 10 or even 20.

Counting galaxies in the Universe is not an easy task. Firstly, as mentioned above, we do not see most of these objects due to their dimness and small size. The problem, in fact, is not the galaxies, but that the equipment used by humans to observe them is imperfect. Secondly, so far we are able to study only a small fraction of the space that is available for observation. Images of the Hubble Deep Field are only a millionth of what a human could observe. Here's an animation that shows how tiny the region of space that Hubble is observing is.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham made their conclusions after working on analyzing Hubble images for 15 years. The work was started by graduate student Aaron Wilkinson, who received a large grant for a galaxy counting project. The data he obtained formed the basis for a much larger study carried out by Professor Conselis together with colleagues from the University of Edinburgh and Leiden. They used data from Wilkinson, images taken by Hubble, and images from other observatories around the world. Mathematical analysis has shown that the “population” density of the Universe is higher than previously thought.

“We know that since their appearance, galaxies have evolved, merged with other objects, and increased in size. The fact that there were more galaxies in the past indicates a very active evolutionary process that led to the merger of many systems,” the scientists said in a statement. This evolutionary process is the merger of smaller galaxies into larger ones large objects. The new data will help scientists form a more accurate model of the evolution of the Universe than ever before.

Scientists, talking about the large number of galaxies in the Universe, remembered Olbers' paradox. This is one of the paradoxes of pre-relativistic cosmology, which consists in the fact that in a stationary Universe, uniformly filled with stars (as was then believed), the brightness of the sky (including the night sky) should be approximately equal to the brightness of the solar disk. In theory, in the cosmological model of the Big Bang, this paradox is completely resolved by taking into account the finite speed of light and the finite age of the Universe.

Why is our sky dark at night and not glowing? We could observe approximately this picture if the Universe were static (

The outer space around us is not just lonely stars, planets, asteroids and comets sparkling in the night sky. Space is a huge system where everything is in close interaction with each other. Planets are grouped around stars, which in turn gather into a cluster or nebula. These formations can be represented by single luminaries, or they can number hundreds, thousands of stars, forming larger-scale universal formations - galaxies. Our star country, the Milky Way galaxy, is only a small part of the vast Universe, in which other galaxies also exist.

The universe is constantly in motion. Any object in space is part of a particular galaxy. Following the stars, galaxies also move, each of which has its own size, a specific place in the dense universal order and its own trajectory of movement.

What is the real structure of the Universe?

For a long time, humanity's scientific ideas about space were built around the planets of the solar system, stars and black holes that inhabit our stellar home - the Milky Way galaxy. Any other galactic object detected in space using telescopes was automatically included in the structure of our galactic space. Accordingly, there was no idea that the Milky Way is not the only universal formation.

Limited technical capabilities did not allow us to look further, beyond the Milky Way, where, according to conventional wisdom, the void begins. Only in 1920, the American astrophysicist Edwin Hubble was able to find evidence that the Universe is much larger and, along with our galaxy, there are other, large and small galaxies in this huge and endless world. There is no real boundary of the Universe. Some objects are located quite close to us, only a few million light years from Earth. Others, on the contrary, are located in the far corner of the Universe, being out of sight.

Almost a hundred years have passed and the number of galaxies today is already estimated at hundreds of thousands. Against this background, our Milky Way looks not at all so huge, if not quite tiny. Today, galaxies have already been discovered whose sizes are difficult even for mathematical analysis. For example, the largest galaxy in the Universe, IC 1101, has a diameter of 6 million light years and consists of more than 100 trillion stars. This galactic monster is located more than a billion light years from our planet.

The structure of such a huge formation, which is the Universe on a global scale, is represented by emptiness and interstellar formations - filaments. The latter, in turn, are divided into superclusters, intergalactic clusters and galactic groups. The smallest link of this huge mechanism is the galaxy, represented by numerous star clusters - arms and gas nebulae. It is assumed that the Universe is constantly expanding, thereby causing galaxies to move at tremendous speed in the direction from the center of the Universe to the periphery.

If we imagine that we are observing space from our Milky Way galaxy, which is supposedly located at the center of the universe, then a large-scale model of the structure of the Universe will look like this.

Dark matter - aka emptiness, superclusters, clusters of galaxies and nebulae - are all consequences of the Big Bang, which marked the beginning of the formation of the Universe. Over the course of a billion years, its structure undergoes a transformation, the shape of galaxies changes, as some stars disappear, swallowed up by black holes, while others, on the contrary, transform into supernovae, becoming new galactic objects. Billions of years ago, the arrangement of galaxies was completely different from what we see now. One way or another, against the background of constant astrophysical processes occurring in space, we can draw certain conclusions that our Universe does not have a constant structure. All space objects are in constant motion, changing their position, size and age.

To date, thanks to the Hubble telescope, it has been possible to detect the location of the galaxies closest to us, determine their sizes and determine the location relative to our world. Through the efforts of astronomers, mathematicians and astrophysicists, a map of the Universe has been compiled. Single galaxies have been identified, but for the most part, such large universal objects are grouped in groups of several dozen in a group. The average size of galaxies in such a group is 1-3 million light years. The group to which our Milky Way belongs contains 40 galaxies. In addition to groups, there are a huge number of dwarf galaxies in intergalactic space. As a rule, such formations are satellites of larger galaxies, such as our Milky Way, Triangulum or Andromeda.

Until recently, the dwarf galaxy “Segue 2”, located 35 kiloparsecs from our star, was considered the smallest galaxy in the Universe. However, in 2018, Japanese astrophysicists discovered an even smaller galaxy - Virgo I, which is a satellite of the Milky Way and is located at a distance of 280 thousand light years from Earth. However, scientists believe that this is not the limit. There is a high probability that galaxies of much more modest sizes exist.

After groups of galaxies come clusters, regions of outer space in which there are up to hundreds of galaxies of various types, shapes and sizes. The clusters are colossal in size. As a rule, the diameter of such a universal formation is several megaparsecs.

A distinctive feature of the structure of the Universe is its weak variability. Despite the enormous speeds at which galaxies move in the Universe, they all remain part of one cluster. Here the principle of preserving the position of particles in space, which are affected by dark matter formed as a result of the big bang, operates. It is assumed that, under the influence of these voids filled with dark matter, clusters and groups of galaxies continue to move in the same direction for billions of years, neighboring each other.

The largest formations in the Universe are galactic superclusters, which unite groups of galaxies. The most famous supercluster is the Great Clown Wall, an object of universal scale, stretching over 500 million light years. The thickness of this supercluster is 15 million light years.

Under current conditions, spacecraft and technology do not allow us to examine the Universe to its full depth. We can only detect superclusters, clusters and groups. In addition, our space has giant voids, bubbles of dark matter.

Steps towards exploring the Universe

A modern map of the Universe allows us not only to determine our location in space. Today, thanks to the availability of powerful radio telescopes and the technical capabilities of the Hubble telescope, man has been able not only to approximately calculate the number of galaxies in the Universe, but also to determine their types and varieties. Back in 1845, British astronomer William Parsons, using a telescope to study clouds of gas, was able to reveal the spiral nature of the structure of galactic objects, focusing on the fact that in different areas the brightness of star clusters can be greater or lesser.

A hundred years ago, the Milky Way was considered the only known galaxy, although the presence of other intergalactic objects was mathematically proven. Our space yard got its name back in ancient times. Ancient astronomers, looking at the myriads of stars in the night sky, noticed characteristic feature their locations. The main cluster of stars was concentrated along an imaginary line, reminiscent of a path of splashed milk. The Milky Way Galaxy and the celestial bodies of another well-known Andromeda galaxy are the very first universal objects from which the study of outer space began.

Our Milky Way has the complete set of all galactic objects that a normal galaxy should have. There are clusters and groups of stars here, the total number of which is approximately 250-400 billion. There are clouds of gas in our galaxy that form arms, there are black holes and solar systems similar to ours.

At the same time, the Milky Way, like Andromeda and Triangulum, are only a small part of the Universe, part of the local group of the Virgo supercluster. Our galaxy has the shape of a spiral, where the bulk of star clusters, gas clouds and other space objects move around the center. The diameter of the outer spiral is 100 thousand light years. The Milky Way is not a large galaxy by cosmic standards, its mass is 4.8 x 1011 Mʘ. Our Sun is also located in one of the arms of Orion Cygnus. The distance from our star to the center of the Milky Way is 26,000 ± 1,400 light years. years.

For a long time, it was believed that the Andromeda nebula, one of the most popular among astronomers, is part of our galaxy. Subsequent studies of this part of space provided irrefutable evidence that Andromeda is an independent galaxy, and much larger than the Milky Way. Images obtained using telescopes showed that Andromeda has its own core. There are also clusters of stars here and there are nebulae of their own, moving in a spiral. Each time, astronomers tried to look deeper and deeper into the Universe, exploring vast areas of outer space. The number of stars in this universal giant is estimated at 1 trillion.

Through the efforts of Edwin Hubble, it was possible to establish the approximate distance to Andromeda, which could not possibly be part of our galaxy. This was the first galaxy to be studied so closely. Subsequent years brought new discoveries in the field of exploration of intergalactic space. The part of the Milky Way galaxy in which ours is located has been studied more thoroughly. solar system. Since the middle of the 20th century, it has become clear that in addition to our Milky Way and the well-known Andromeda, there are a huge number of other formations on a universal scale in space. However, order required the ordering of outer space. While stars, planets and other cosmic objects could be classified, the situation with galaxies was more complicated. This was due to the enormous size of the areas of outer space under study, which were not only difficult to study visually, but also to evaluate at the level of human nature.

Types of galaxies in accordance with the accepted classification

Hubble was the first to take such a step, making an attempt in 1962 to logically classify the galaxies known at that time. Classification was carried out based on the shape of the objects under study. As a result, Hubble managed to arrange all the galaxies into four groups:

• the most common type are spiral galaxies;
• followed by elliptical spiral galaxies;
• with galaxy bar (bar);
• irregular galaxies.

It should be noted that our Milky Way is a typical spiral galaxy, but there is one “but”. Recently, the presence of a bridge - a bar, which is present in the central part of the formation - has been revealed. In other words, our galaxy does not originate from the galactic core, but flows out of the bridge.

Traditionally, a spiral galaxy looks like a flat, spiral-shaped disk, which necessarily contains a bright center—the galactic core. There are most of these galaxies in the Universe and they are designated by the Latin letter S. In addition, there is a division of spiral galaxies into four subgroups - So, Sa, Sb and Sc. Small letters indicate the presence of a bright core, the absence of arms, or, conversely, the presence of dense arms covering the central part of the galaxy. In such arms there are clusters of stars, groups of stars that include our Solar System, and other space objects.

The main feature of this type is the slow rotation around the center. The Milky Way completes a revolution around its center every 250 million years. The spirals located closer to the center consist mainly of clusters of old stars. The center of our galaxy is a black hole, around which all the main movement occurs. The length of the path, according to modern estimates, is 1.5-25 thousand light years towards the center. During their existence, spiral galaxies can merge with other smaller universal formations. Evidence of such collisions in earlier periods is the presence of halos of stars and halos of clusters. A similar theory underlies the theory of the formation of spiral galaxies, which were the result of the collision of two galaxies located in the neighborhood. The collision could not pass without a trace, giving a general rotational impulse to the new formation. Next to the spiral galaxy there is a dwarf galaxy, one, two or several at once, which are satellites of a larger formation.

Close in structure and composition to spiral galaxies are elliptical spiral galaxies. These are huge, the largest universal objects, including a large number of superclusters, clusters and groups of stars. In the largest galaxies, the number of stars exceeds tens of trillions. The main difference between such formations is their highly extended shape in space. The spirals are arranged in the shape of an ellipse. Elliptical spiral galaxy M87 is one of the largest in the Universe.

Barred galaxies are much less common. They account for approximately half of all spiral galaxies. Unlike spiral formations, in such galaxies the origin comes from a bridge called a bar, arising from the two most bright stars, located in the center. A striking example Such formations are our Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Previously, this formation was classified as irregular galaxies. The appearance of the jumper is on this moment one of the main areas of research in modern astrophysics. According to one version, a nearby black hole sucks and absorbs gas from neighboring stars.

The most beautiful galaxies in the Universe are the types of spiral and irregular galaxies. One of the most beautiful is the Whirlpool Galaxy, located in the celestial constellation Canes Venatici. In this case, the center of the galaxy and the spirals rotating in the same direction are clearly visible. Irregular galaxies are chaotically located superclusters of stars that do not have a clear structure. A striking example of such a formation is the galaxy number NGC 4038, located in the constellation Raven. Here, along with huge gas clouds and nebulae, you can see a complete lack of order in the arrangement of space objects.

conclusions

You can study the Universe endlessly. Every time, with the advent of new technical means, man lifts the veil of space. Galaxies are the most incomprehensible to human mind objects in outer space, both from a psychological point of view and looking back at science.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them