Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,903,385,256 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

elliptical galaxy

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
elliptical galaxy  (-lpt-kl)
The most common type of galaxy, ranging in shape from nearly spherical (classified as E0) to greatly elongated (classified as E7). Elliptical galaxies vary greatly in size and include some of the largest and smallest known galaxies. They do not have spiral arms and have considerably less interstellar gas and dust than spiral galaxies, with little or no star formation taking place within them. Their stars follow individual elliptical orbits around the center of the galaxy. Long thought to be older galaxies which had used up all the material for star formation, it has also been suggested that elliptical galaxies actually form from collisions between spiral galaxies. Compare irregular galaxylenticular galaxyspiral galaxy See more at Hubble classification system.


Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Add definition
Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Dictionary browser?   Full browser?
 
This dust is thought to be the remains of a cosmic merger between a giant elliptical galaxy and a smaller spiral galaxy full of dust.
Other collisions depicted include the violent meeting of two stars at the edge of the galaxy and the future collision of the Milky Way galaxy with Earth''s closest neighbor, the Andromeda spiral galaxy, a cosmic crash that scientists predict will produce a new giant elliptical galaxy billions of years from now.
Other topics include pulsar wind nebulae, absolute magnitude calibrations for the long period Cepheids, elliptical galaxy formation, extragalactic globular clusters, diffuse atomic and molecular clouds, and the first results from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
 
 
 
Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Translations
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.