An international team of astronomers has observed a high-redshift massive star-forming galaxy known as REBELS-25. They found that REBELS-25 is a dynamically cold disk galaxy. This finding was presented in a research paper ...
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has observed a nearby merging galaxy known as NGC 3256. Results of the observational campaign, presented March 21 on the pre-print server arXiv, ...
An international team of astronomers reports the detection of a new tidal disruption event (TDE) as part of All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). The newfound TDE, designated ASASSN-23bd, turns out to be the ...
By analyzing the data from various space telescopes, astronomers have performed a detailed study of an ultraluminous X-ray source known as NGC 2403 XMM4. Results of the study, published January 5 in the Monthly Notices of ...
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team, including astronomer Alexander de la Vega of the University of California, Riverside, has discovered the most distant barred spiral galaxy similar to the Milky ...
Astronomy
Nov 9, 2023
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Astronomers report the discovery of a new ultrastripped supernova in the galaxy UGC 3855. The supernova was detected using the Half Meter Telescope (HMT) at the Xingming Observatory in China. The finding was detailed in a ...
Indian astronomers have conducted a study aimed at investigating a large-scale turbulence in the interstellar medium of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 6946. Results of the study, published October 4 on the pre-print server ...
By analyzing the images of the Sombrero Galaxy obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Elio Quiroga Rodriguez of the Mid Atlantic University in Spain, has identified a peculiar object, which turned out to be a galaxy ...
Astronomers from the University of Washington in Seattle and elsewhere have conducted Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of the nearby Fireworks Galaxy. Results of the observational campaign, presented July 10 on the ...
Is the Milky Way special, or, at least, is it in a special place in the universe? An international team of astronomers has found that the answer to that question is yes, in a way not previously appreciated. A new study shows ...
Astronomy
Jan 23, 2023
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A spiral galaxy is a galaxy belonging to one of the three main classes of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work “The Realm of the Nebulae” and, as such, forms part of the Hubble sequence. Spiral galaxies consist of a flat, rotating disk containing stars, gas and dust, and a central concentration of stars known as the bulge. These are surrounded by a much fainter halo of stars, many of which reside in globular clusters.
Spiral galaxies are named for the (usually two-armed) spiral structures that extend from the center into the disk. The spiral arms are sites of ongoing star formation and are brighter than the surrounding disk because of the young, hot OB stars that inhabit them. Roughly half of all spirals are observed to have an additional component in the form of a bar-like structure, extending from the central bulge, at the ends of which the spiral arms begin. Our own Milky Way has been recently (in the 1990s) been confirmed to be a barred spiral, although the bar itself is difficult to observe from our position within the Galactic disk. The most convincing evidence for its existence comes from a recent survey, performed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, of stars in the Galactic center.
Together with irregulars, spiral galaxies make up approximately 60% of galaxies in the local Universe. They are mostly found in low-density regions and are rare in the centers of galaxy clusters.
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