What are elliptical galaxies for kids?
An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an ellipsoidal shape, and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They are one of the three main types of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in 1936.
How do you explain galaxies to kids?
A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems, all held together by gravity. We live on a planet called Earth that is part of our solar system. But where is our solar system? It’s a small part of the Milky Way Galaxy.
What is meant by spiral galaxy?
Spiral galaxies are twisted collections of stars and gas that often have beautiful shapes and are made up of hot young stars. Most of the galaxies that scientists have discovered so far are spiral galaxies, as opposed to the other two main categories of galaxy shapes — elliptical and irregular.
What is a fun facts about elliptical galaxies?
Elliptical galaxies have a broader range in size than other types of galaxies. The smallest are dwarf elliptical galaxies, which can be less than 10 percent of the size of the Milky Way. But ellipticals can also stretch to more than a million light-years across, and contain more than ten trillion stars.
What are 5 facts about galaxies?
Fun Facts about Galaxies The closest galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda, which is around 2.6 million light years away from us. Many galaxies are more than 100,000 light years across in distance. It takes over two hundred million years for the sun to orbit the center of the galaxy. This is called a galactic year.
What do elliptical galaxies contain?
Elliptical galaxies are ellipsoidal in shape, contain no spiral arms, contain little interstellar gas or dust, and are found mostly in rich clusters of galaxies. Elliptical galaxies appear typically yellow-red, as opposed to spirals which have spiral arms that appear quite blue.
Why are spiral galaxies the most common?
New research finds that spiral arms are self-perpetuating, persistent, and surprisingly long lived. Spiral galaxies make up roughly 77 percent of the galaxies that scientists have observed. Because elliptical galaxies are made up of older, dimmer stars, they are more challenging to spot.
What causes spiral galaxies?
Astronomers believe that galaxies have spiral arms because galaxies rotate – or spin around a central axis – and because of something called “density waves.” A spiral galaxy’s rotation, or spin, bends the waves into spirals. Stars pass through the wave as they orbit the galaxy center.
What is an elliptical galaxy NASA?
Elliptical galaxies are shaped like stretched-out circles, or ellipses. Some elliptical galaxies are more stretched out than others. One might look almost perfectly circular. Another one might look long and flat. Elliptical galaxies contain mostly older stars.