spiral galaxy

A galaxy consisting of a rotating flattened disk with a central bulge made up mostly of old stars, from which extend two or more spiral arms made up mostly of younger stars and large amounts of interstellar gas and dust.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

spiral galaxy

(Astronomy) a galaxy consisting of an ellipsoidal nucleus of old stars from opposite sides of which arms, containing younger stars, spiral outwards around the nucleus. In a barred spiral, the arms originate at the ends of a bar-shaped nucleus

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

spi′ral gal′axy

a galaxy having a spiral structure. Compare elliptical galaxy.

[1910–15]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

spiral galaxy - a galaxy having a spiral structure; arms containing younger stars spiral out from old stars at the center

spiral nebula

extragalactic nebula, galaxy - (astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust; "`extragalactic nebula' is a former name for `galaxy'"

Andromeda galaxy - a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Andromeda that is visible to the naked eye

Translations

kierteisgalaksi

galassia spirale

спиральная галактика

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

"Few of the universe's residents are as iconic as the spiral galaxy," said the European Space Agency.

NASA shares incredible picture of two spiral galaxies pulling each other apart; The galaxies are known as The Mice, because of their long tails

The Solar System is located in one of the arms in the disc of a barred spiral galaxy we call the Milky Way, with a diameter of about 100,000 light years.

Is Milky Way Getting Bigger?

Galaxies in Lion Territory Object Type Mag(v) Size NGC 2964 Spiral galaxy 11.3 2.9' x 1.6' NGC 2968 Irregular galaxy 11.7 1.9' x 1.3' NGC 2970 Elliptical galaxy 13.6 0.8' x 0.7' NGC 3003 Spiral galaxy 11.9 5.8' x 1.3' NGC 3021 Spiral galaxy 12.1 1.6' x 0.9' NGC 3067 Spiral galaxy 12.1 2.4' x 0.8' NGC 3245 Lenticular galaxy 10.8 2.9' x 1.1' NGC 3277 Spiral galaxy 11.7 1.9' x 1.7' NGC 3254 Spiral galaxy 11.7 4.5' x 1.2' O[SIGMA][SIGMA] 105 Double star 7.0, 8.2 134" NGC 3245A Barred spiral 13.9 3.6' x 0.3' NGC 3158 Elliptical galaxy 11.9 2.0' x 1.8' Object RA Dec.

Into the Lion's Den: It's deep, it's dark, but this night-time hideaway is also full of galaxies

Whether the spiral galaxy has two arms or four, whether those arms wrap all the way around the galaxy, and even the extent of the solar system's arm are up for debate.

Galaxy's 'bones' map its structure: gas tendrils trace the milky way's spiral arms, study finds

This image made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300.

Hubble's turn to smile, marks 25 years in orbit

Using the European Southern Observatory's MUSE instrument, the Durham University-led research team captured images of the spiral galaxy - known as ESO137--001 - which lies 200 million light years from Earth.

Galaxies research revealed

Washington, June 4 ( ANI ): Researchers observed million seconds of observing time with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and discovered a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way glittering with hundreds of X-ray points of light.

New galaxy glittering with hundreds of X-rays discovered

It was long thought to have four main bands of stars spinning from its center, but a new model shows that two of these arms dominate the spiral galaxy.

Milky way remapped

This image provided by NASA shows the sharpest shot yet taken of the large "grand design" spiral galaxy M81.

This image provided by NASA; INTERNATIONAL