October 7, 2022
By Madhavi Pothukuchi
Did you know that almost all large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have a supermassive black hole at their centres? Let’s find out more about these galaxies.
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Galaxies are massive collections of interstellar gas, dust, and stars held together by gravity.
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Galaxies were formed around 14 billion years ago when gigantic clouds of dust and gas collided and combined in space.
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The Milky Way is a spiral-shaped galaxy that includes our solar system. Our closest neighbour is Andromeda galaxy, which is 2.5 million light-years away.
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Galaxies are classified into three categories based on their shapes – elliptical, spiral, and irregular.
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Elliptical galaxies are stretched-out circles shaped and not as bright as other galaxies. They are mostly made up of old stars and midgets of gas and dust, making up 20% of all known galaxies.
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Spiral galaxies look like pinwheels and are super bright as they’re made up of numerous stars, dust, and gas. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy like 60% of our neighbours!
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Irregular galaxies are of no definite shape and like spiral galaxies, are full of young stars, dust and gas. About 20% of our galaxies are irregular.
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