A galaxy (from the Greek root galakt-, meaning "milk", a reference to our own
Milky Way) is a massive,
gravitationally bound system consisting of
stars, an
interstellar medium of gas and
dust, and
dark matter. Typical galaxies range from
dwarfs with as few as ten million
[1] (107) stars up to giants with one trillion
[2] (1012) stars, all orbiting a common
center of mass. Galaxies can also contain many
multiple star systems,
star clusters, and various
interstellar clouds.
Historically, galaxies have been categorized according to their apparent shape (usually referred to as their visual morphology). A common form is the
elliptical galaxy,
[3] which has an
ellipse-shaped light profile.
Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped assemblages with curving, dusty arms. Galaxies with irregular or unusual shapes are known as
peculiar galaxies, and typically result from disruption by the gravitational pull of neighbouring galaxies. Such interactions between nearby galaxies, which may ultimately result in galaxies merging, may induce episodes of significantly increased
star formation, producing what is called a
starburst galaxy. Small galaxies that lack a coherent structure could also be referred to as
irregular galaxies.
[4]There are probably more than one hundred billion (1011) galaxies in the
observable universe.
[5] Most galaxies are a thousand to a hundred thousand
[2] parsecs in diameter and are usually separated by distances on the order of millions of parsecs (or megaparsecs).
[6] Intergalactic space (the space between galaxies) is filled with a tenuous gas of an average density less than one
atom per
cubic metre. The majority of galaxies are organized into a hierarchy of associations called
clusters, which, in turn, can form larger groups called
superclusters. These larger structures are generally arranged into
sheets and
filaments, which surround immense
voids in the
universe.
[7]Although theoretical,
dark matter appears to account for around 90% of the
mass of most galaxies. But the nature of these unseen components is not well understood. Observational data suggests that
supermassive black holes may exist at the center of many, if not all, galaxies. They are proposed to be the primary cause of
active galactic nuclei found at the core of some galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy, home of
Earth and the
solar system, appears to harbor at least one such object within its nucleus.
[
edit] Etymology
The word Galaxy derives from the
Greek term for our own galaxy, galaxias (γαλαξίας), or kyklos galaktikos, meaning "milky circle" for its appearance in the sky. In
Greek mythology,
Zeus placed his son born by a mortal woman, the infant
Heracles, on
Hera's breast as she was asleep, so that the baby would drink her divine milk and would thus become immortal. Hera woke up while breastfeeding, and realized she was nursing an unknown baby: she pushed the baby away and a jet of her milk sprayed the night sky, producing the faint band of light known as the Milky Way.
[9]The terms galaxy and Milky Way first appeared in the English language in a poem by
Chaucer.
"See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë Which men clepeth the Milky Wey, For hit is whyt."
—Geoffrey Chaucer, Geoffrey Chaucer
The House of Fame, c. 1380.
[10]When
William Herschel constructed his catalog of deep sky objects, he used the name "spiral nebula" for certain objects such as
M31. These would later be recognized as immense conglomerations of stars, once the true distance to these objects was appreciated, and they would be termed "Island universes". However, the word universe was understood to mean the entirety of existence, so this expression fell into disuse and the objects instead became known as galaxies.
[11][
edit] Observation history
In 1610,
Galileo Galilei used a
telescope to study the bright band on the night sky known as the Milky Way and discovered that it was composed of a huge number of faint stars.
[12] In a treatise in 1755,
Immanuel Kant, drawing on earlier work by
Thomas Wright, speculated (correctly) that the Galaxy might be a rotating body of a huge number of stars, held together by
gravitational forces akin to the solar system but on much larger scales. The resulting disk of stars would be seen as a band on the sky from our perspective inside the disk. Kant also conjectured that some of the
nebulae visible in the night sky might be separate galaxies.
[13]Sketch of the
Whirlpool Galaxy by
Lord Rosse in 1845
Towards the end of the 18th century,
Charles Messier compiled a
catalog containing the 109 brightest nebulae (celestial objects with a nebulous appearance), later followed by a larger catalog of five thousand nebulae assembled by William Herschel.
[13] In 1845,
Lord Rosse constructed a new telescope and was able to distinguish between elliptical and spiral-shaped nebulae. He also managed to make out individual point sources in some of these nebulae, lending credence to Kant's earlier conjecture.
[14]In 1917,
Heber Curtis had observed the nova
S Andromedae within the Messier object
M31. Searching the photographic record, he found 11 more
novae. Curtis noticed that these novae were, on average, 10
magnitudes fainter than those that occurred within our galaxy. As a result he was able to come up with a distance estimate of 150,000 parsecs. He became a proponent of the so-called "island universes" hypothesis, which held that the spiral nebulae were actually independent galaxies.
[15]In 1920 the so-called
Great Debate took place between
Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, concerning the nature of the Milky Way, spiral nebulae, and the dimensions of the universe. To support his claim that M31 was an external galaxy, Curtis noted the appearance of dark lanes resembling the dust clouds in our own galaxies, as well as the significant
Doppler shift.
[16]The matter was conclusively settled by
Edwin Hubble in the early 1920s using a new telescope. He was able to resolve the outer parts of some spiral nebulae as collections of individual stars and identified some
Cepheid variables, thus allowing him to estimate the distance to the nebulae: they were far too distant to be part of the Milky Way.
[17] In 1936 Hubble produced a classification system for galaxies that is used to this day, the
Hubble sequence.
[18]The first attempt to describe the shape of the Milky Way and the position of the
Sun within it was carried out by William Herschel in 1785 by carefully counting the number of stars in different regions of the sky. Using a refined approach,
Kapteyn in 1920 arrived at the picture of a small (diameter about 15 kiloparsecs) ellipsoid galaxy with the Sun close to the center. A different method by Harlow Shapley based on the cataloging of
globular clusters led to a radically different picture: a flat disk with diameter approximately 70 kiloparsecs and the Sun far from the center.
[13] Both analyses failed to take into account the
absorption of light by
interstellar dust present in the
galactic plane, but after
Robert Julius Trumpler quantified this effect in 1930 by studying
open clusters, the present picture of our galaxy emerged.
[19]In 1944,
Hendrik van de Hulst predicted
microwave radiation at a
wavelength of 21 cm, resulting from interstellar atomic
hydrogen gas;
[20] this radiation was observed in 1951. The radiation allowed for much improved study of the Galaxy, since it is not affected by dust absorption and its Doppler shift can be used to map the motion of the gas in the Galaxy. These observations led to the postulation of a rotating
bar structure in the center of the Galaxy.
[21] With improved
radio telescopes, hydrogen gas could also be traced in other galaxies.
Rotation curve of a typical spiral galaxy: predicted (A) and observed (B). The distance is from the galactic core.
In the 1970s it was discovered in
Vera Rubin's study of the
rotation speed of gas in galaxies that the total visible mass (from stars and gas) does not properly account for the speed of the rotating gas. This galaxy rotation problem is thought to be explained by the presence of large quantities of unseen
dark matter.
[22]Beginning in the 1990s, the
Hubble Space Telescope yielded improved observations. Among other things, it established that the missing dark matter in our galaxy cannot solely consist of inherently faint and small stars.
[23] The
Hubble Deep Field, an extremely long exposure of a relatively empty part of the sky, provided evidence that there are about one hundred and seventy five billion galaxies in the universe.
[24] Improved technology in detecting the
spectra invisible to humans (radio telescopes, infra-red cameras,
x-ray telescopes), allow detection of other galaxies that are not detected by Hubble. Particularly, galaxy surveys in the
zone of avoidance (the region of the sky blocked by the Milky Way) have revealed a number of new galaxies.
[25][
edit] Types and morphology
Main article:
Galaxy morphological classificationTypes of galaxies according to the Hubble classification scheme. An E indicates a type of elliptical galaxy; an S is a spiral, and SB is a barred-spiral galaxy.
[a]Galaxies come in three main types: ellipticals, spirals, and irregulars. A slightly more extensive description of galaxy types based on their appearance is given by the
Hubble sequence. Since the Hubble sequence is entirely based upon visual morphological type, it may miss certain important characteristics of galaxies such as
star formation rate (in starburst galaxies) or activity in the core (in
active galaxies).
[4][
edit] Ellipticals
Main article:
Elliptical galaxyThe Hubble classification system rates elliptical galaxies on the basis of their ellipticity, ranging from E0, being nearly spherical, up to E7, which is highly elongated. These galaxies have an
ellipsoidal profile, giving them an elliptical appearance regardless of the viewing angle. Their appearance shows little structure and they typically have relatively little
interstellar matter. Consequently these galaxies also have a low portion of
open clusters and a reduced rate of new star formation. Instead the galaxy is dominated by generally older, more
evolved stars that are orbiting the common center of gravity in random directions. In this sense they have some similarity to the much smaller
globular clusters.
[26]The largest galaxies are giant ellipticals. Many elliptical galaxies are believed to form due to the
interaction of galaxies, resulting in a collision and merger. They can grow to enormous sizes (compared to spiral galaxies, for example), and giant elliptical galaxies are often found near the core of large galaxy clusters.
[27] Starburst galaxies are the result of such a galactic collision that can result in the formation of an elliptical galaxy.
[26][
edit] Spirals
Main articles:
Spiral galaxy and
Barred spiral galaxySpiral galaxies consist of a rotating disk of stars and interstellar medium, along with a central bulge of generally older stars. Extending outward from the bulge are relatively bright arms. In the Hubble classification scheme, spiral galaxies are listed as type S, followed by a letter (a, b, or c) that indicates the degree of tightness of the spiral arms and the size of the central bulge. An Sa galaxy has tightly wound, poorly-defined arms and possesses a relatively large core region. At the other extreme, an Sc galaxy has open, well-defined arms and a small core region.
[28]In spiral galaxies, the spiral arms have the shape of approximate
logarithmic spirals, a pattern that can be theoretically shown to result from a disturbance in a uniformly rotating mass of stars. Like the stars, the spiral arms also rotate around the center, but they do so with constant
angular velocity. That means that stars pass in and out of spiral arms, with stars near the galactic core orbiting faster than the arms are moving while stars near the outer parts of the galaxy typically orbit more slowly than the arms. The spiral arms are thought to be areas of high density of matter, or "density waves". As stars moves through an arm, the space velocity of each stellar system is modified by the gravitational force of the higher density. (The velocity returns to normal after the stars depart on the other side of the arm.) This effect is akin to a "wave" of slowdowns moving along a highway full of moving cars. The arms are visible because the high density facilitates star formation, and therefore they harbor many bright and young stars.
The barred spiral galaxy
NGC 1300 (NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope photo).
A majority of spiral galaxies have a linear, bar-shaped band of stars that extends outward to either side of the core, then merges into the spiral arm structure.
[29] In the Hubble classification scheme, these are designated by an SB, followed by a lower-case letter (a, b or c) that indicates the form of the spiral arms (in the same manner as the categorization of normal spiral galaxies). Bars are thought to be temporary structures that can occur as a result of a density wave radiating outward from the core, or else due to a
tidal interaction with another galaxy.
[30] Many barred spiral galaxies are active, possibly as a result of gas being channeled into the core along the arms.
[31]Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, sometimes simply called the Galaxy (with uppercase), is a large disk-shaped barred-spiral galaxy
[32] about
30 kiloparsecs in diameter and a kiloparsec in thickness. It contains about two hundred billion (2×1011)
[33] stars and has a total mass of about six hundred billion (6×1011) times the mass of the Sun.
[34][
edit] Other morphologies
Hoag's Object, an example of a ring galaxy. (NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image).
Peculiar galaxies are galactic formations that develop unusual properties due to tidal interactions with other galaxies. An example of this is the
ring galaxy, which possesses a ring-like structure of stars and interstellar medium surrounding a bare core. A ring galaxy is thought to occur when a smaller galaxy passes through the core of a spiral galaxy.
[35] Such an event may have affected the
Andromeda Galaxy, as it displays a multi-ring-like structure when viewed in
infrared radiation.
[36]A
lenticular galaxy is an intermediate form that has properties of both elliptical and spiral galaxies. These are categorized as Hubble type S0, and they possess ill-defined spiral arms with an elliptical halo of stars.
[37] (
Barred lenticular galaxies receive Hubble classification SB0.)
In addition to the classifications mentioned above, there are a number of galaxies that can not be readily classified into an elliptical or spiral morphology. These are categorized as irregular galaxies. An Irr-I galaxy has some structure but does not align cleanly with the Hubble classification scheme. Irr-II galaxies do not possess any structure that resembles a Hubble classification, and may have been disrupted.
[38] Nearby examples of (dwarf) irregular galaxies include the
Magellanic Clouds.
[
edit] Dwarf
Main article:
Dwarf galaxyDespite the prominence of large elliptical and spiral galaxies, most galaxies in the universe appear to be dwarf galaxies. These tiny galaxies are about one hundredth the size of the Milky Way, containing only a few billion stars. Ultra-compact dwarf galaxies have recently been discovered that are only 100 parsecs across.
[39]Many dwarf galaxies may orbit a single larger galaxy; the Milky Way has at least a dozen such satellites, with an estimated 300–500 yet to be discovered.
[40] Dwarf galaxies may also be classified as
elliptical,
spiral, or
irregular. Since small dwarf ellipticals bear little resemblance to large ellipticals, they are often called
dwarf spheroidal galaxies instead.
[
edit] Unusual dynamics and activities
[
edit] Interacting
Main article:
Interacting galaxyThe average separation between galaxies within a cluster is a little over an
order of magnitude larger than their diameter. Hence interactions between these galaxies are relatively frequent, and play an important role in their
evolution. Near misses between galaxies result in warping distortions due to
tidal interactions, and may cause some exchange of gas and dust.
[41][42]The
Antennae Galaxies are undergoing a collision that will result in their eventual merger (NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image).
Collisions occur when two galaxies pass directly through each other and have sufficient relative momentum not to merge. The stars within these interacting galaxies will typically pass straight through without colliding. However, the gas and dust within the two forms will interact. This can trigger bursts of star formation as the interstellar medium becomes disrupted and compressed. A collision can severely distort the shape of one or both galaxies, forming bars, rings or tail-like structures.
[41][42]At the extreme of interactions are galactic mergers. In this case the relative momentum of the two galaxies is insufficient to allow the galaxies to pass through each other. Instead, they gradually merge together to form a single, larger galaxy. Mergers can result in significant changes to morphology, as compared to the original galaxies. In the case where one of the galaxies is much more massive, however, the result is known as
cannibalism. In this case the larger galaxy will remain relatively undisturbed by the merger, while the smaller galaxy is torn apart. The Milky Way galaxy is currently in the process of cannibalizing the
Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy and the
Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy.
[41][42][
edit] Starburst
Main article:
Starburst galaxyM82, the archetype starburst galaxy, has experienced a 10-fold increase
[43] in star formation rate as compared to a "normal" galaxy (NASA/ESA/STSci image).
Stars are created within galaxies from a reserve of cold gas that forms into giant
molecular clouds. Some galaxies have been observed to form stars at an exceptional rate, known as a starburst. Should they continue to do so, however, they would consume their reserve of gas in a time frame lower than the lifespan of the galaxy. Hence starburst activity usually lasts for only about ten million years, a relatively brief period in the history of a galaxy. Starburst galaxies were more common during the early history of the universe,
[44] and, at present, still contribute an estimated 15% to the total star production rate.
[45]Starburst galaxies are characterized by dusty concentrations of gas and the appearance of newly-formed stars, including massive stars that ionize the surrounding clouds to create
H II regions.
[46] These massive stars also produce
supernova explosions, resulting in expanding
remnants that interact powerfully with the surrounding gas. These outbursts trigger a chain reaction of star building that spreads throughout the gaseous region. Only when the available gas is nearly consumed or dispersed does the starburst activity come to an end.
[44]Starbursts are often associated with merging or interacting galaxies. The prototype example of such a starburst-forming interaction is
M82, which experienced a close encounter with the larger
M81. Irregular galaxies often exhibit spaced knots of starburst activity.
[47][
edit] Active nucleus
Main article:
Active galactic nucleusA portion of the galaxies we can observe are classified as active. That is, a significant portion of the total energy output from the galaxy is emitted by a source other than the stars, dust and
interstellar medium.
The standard model for an
active galactic nucleus is based upon an
accretion disc that forms around a
supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the core region. The radiation from an active galactic nucleus results from the
gravitational energy of matter as it falls toward the black hole from the disc.
[48] In about 10% of these objects, a diametrically opposed pair of energetic jets ejects particles from the core at velocities close to the
speed of light. The mechanism for producing these jets is still not well-understood.
[49]A jet of particles is being emitted from the core of the elliptical radio galaxy
M87 (NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image).
Active galaxies that emit high-energy radiation in the form of
x-rays are classified as
Seyfert galaxies or
quasars, depending on the luminosity.
Blazars are believed to be an active galaxy with a
relativistic jet that is pointed in the direction of the Earth. A
radio galaxy emits radio frequencies from relativistic jets. A unified model of these types of active galaxies explains their differences based on the viewing angle of the observer.
[49]Possibly related to active galactic nuclei (as well as
starburst regions) are
low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs). The emission from LINER-type galaxies is dominated by weakly-
ionized elements.
[50] Approximately one-third of nearby galaxies are classified as containing LINER nuclei.
[48][50][51][
edit] Formation and evolution
Main article:
Galaxy formation and evolutionThe study of galactic formation and evolution attempts to answer questions regarding how galaxies formed and their evolutionary path over the history of the universe. Some theories in this field have now become widely accepted, but it is still an active area in
astrophysics.
[
edit] Formation
Current cosmological models of the early Universe are based on the
Big Bang theory. About 300,000 years after this event, atoms of
hydrogen and
helium began to form, in an event called
recombination. Nearly all the hydrogen was neutral (non-ionized) and readily absorbed light, and no stars had yet formed. As a result this period has been called the "
Dark Ages". It was from density fluctuations (or
anisotropic irregularities) in this primordial matter that
larger structures began to appear. As a result, masses of
baryonic matter started to condense within cold
dark matter halos.
[52] These primordial structures would eventually become the galaxies we see today.
Evidence for the early appearance of galaxies was found in 2006, when it was discovered that the galaxy
IOK-1 has an unusually high
redshift of 6.96, making it the most distant galaxy yet seen.
[53] While some scientists have claimed other objects (such as
Abell 1835 IR1916) have higher redshifts (and therefore are seen in an earlier stage of the Universe's evolution), IOK-1's age and composition have been more reliably established. The existence of such early
protogalaxies suggests that they must have grown in the so-called "Dark Ages".
[54]The detailed process by which such early galaxy formation occurred is a major open question in astronomy. Theories could be divided into two categories: top-down and bottom-up. In top-down theories (such as the Eggen–Lynden-Bell–Sandage [ELS] model), protogalaxies form in a large-scale simultaneous collapse lasting about one hundred million years.
[55] In bottom-up theories (such as the Searle-Zinn [SZ] model), small structures such as
globular clusters form first, and then a number of such bodies accrete to form a larger galaxy.
[56] Modern theories must be modified to account for the probable presence of large dark matter halos.
Once protogalaxies began to form and contract, the first
halo stars (called
Population III stars) appeared within them. These were composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, and may have been massive. If so, these huge stars would have quickly consumed their supply of fuel and became
supernovae, releasing heavy elements into the
interstellar medium.
[57] This first generation of stars re-ionized the surrounding neutral hydrogen, creating expanding bubbles of space through which light could readily travel.
[58][
edit] Evolution
I Zwicky 18 (lower left) is a recently-formed galaxy that may still be producing its first generation of stars
[59] (NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image).
Within a billion years of a galaxy's formation, key structures begin to appear.
Globular clusters, the central supermassive black hole, and a
galactic bulge of metal-poor
Population II stars form. The creation of a supermassive black hole appears to play a key role in actively regulating the growth of galaxies by limiting the total amount of additional matter added.
[60]During the following two billion years, the accumulated matter settles into a
galactic disc.
[61] A galaxy will continue to absorb infalling material from
high velocity clouds and
dwarf galaxies throughout its life.
[62] This matter is mostly hydrogen and helium. The cycle of stellar birth and death slowly increases the abundance of heavy elements, eventually allowing the
formation of
planets.
[63]The evolution of galaxies can be significantly affected by interactions and collisions. Mergers of galaxies were common during the early epoch, and the majority of galaxies were peculiar in morphology.
[64] Given the distances between the stars, the great majority of stellar systems in colliding galaxies will be unaffected. However, gravitational stripping of the interstellar gas and dust that makes up the spiral arms produces a long train of stars, similar to that seen in
NGC 250[65] or the
Antennae Galaxies.
[66]As an example of such an interaction, the Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Andromeda Galaxy are moving toward each other at about 130
km/s, and—depending upon the lateral movements—the two may collide in about five to six billion years. Although the Milky Way has never collided with a galaxy as large as Andromeda before, evidence of past collisions of the Milky Way with smaller dwarf galaxies is increasing.
[67]Such large-scale interactions are rare. As time passes, mergers of two systems of equal size become less common. Most bright galaxies have remained fundamentally unchanged for the last few billion years, and the net rate of star formation also peaked approximately five billion years ago.
[68][
edit] Future trends
At present, most star formation occurs in smaller galaxies where cool gas is not so depleted.
[64] Spiral galaxies, like the Milky Way, only produce new generations of stars as long as they have dense
molecular clouds of interstellar hydrogen in their spiral arms.
[69] Elliptical galaxies are already largely devoid of this gas, and so form no new stars.
[70] The supply of star-forming material is finite; once stars have converted the available supply of hydrogen into heavier elements, new star formation will come to an end.
[71]The current era of star formation is expected to continue for up to one hundred billion years, and then the "stellar age" will wind down after about ten trillion to one hundred trillion years (1013–1014 years), as the smallest, longest-lived stars in our astrosphere, tiny
red dwarfs, begin to fade. At the end of the stellar age galaxies will be composed of
compact objects:
brown dwarfs,
white dwarfs that are cooling or cold ("
black dwarfs"),
neutron stars, and
black holes. Eventually, as a result of
gravitational relaxation, all stars will either fall into central supermassive black holes or be flung into intergalactic space as a result of collisions.
[72][71][
edit] Larger scale structures
Main articles:
Large-scale structure of the cosmos and
Groups and clusters of galaxiesDeep sky surveys show that galaxies are often found in relatively close association with other galaxies. Solitary galaxies that have not significantly interacted with another galaxy of comparable mass during the past billion years are relatively scarce. Only about 5% of the galaxies surveyed have been found to be truly isolated; however, these isolated formations may have interacted and even merged with other galaxies in the past, and may still be orbited by smaller, satellite galaxies. Isolated galaxies
[b] can produce stars at a higher rate than normal, as their gas is not being stripped by other, nearby galaxies.
[73]On the largest scale, the universe is continually expanding, resulting in an average increase in the separation between individual galaxies (see
Hubble's law). Associations of galaxies can overcome this expansion on a local scale through their mutual gravitational attraction. These associations formed early in the universe, as clumps of dark matter pulled their respective galaxies together. Nearby groups later merged to form larger-scale clusters. This on-going merger process (as well as an influx of infalling gas) heats the inter-galactic gas within a cluster to very high temperatures, reaching 30–100 million
K.
[74] About 70–80% of the mass in a cluster is in the form of dark matter, with 10–30% consisting of this heated gas and the remaining few percent of the matter in the form of galaxies.
[75]Seyfert's Sextet is an example of a compact galaxy group (NASA Hubble Space Telescope image).
Most galaxies in the universe are gravitationally bound to a number of other galaxies. These form a
fractal-like hierarchy of clustered structures, with the smallest such associations being termed groups. A group of galaxies is the most common type of galactic cluster, and these formations contain a majority of the galaxies (as well as most of the
baryonic mass) in the universe.
[76][77] To remain gravitationally bound to such a group, each member galaxy must have a sufficiently low velocity to prevent it from escaping (see
Virial theorem). If there is insufficient
kinetic energy, however, the group may evolve into a smaller number of galaxies through mergers.
[78]Larger structures containing many thousands of galaxies packed into an area a few megaparsecs across are called clusters. Clusters of galaxies are often dominated by a single giant elliptical galaxy, known as the
brightest cluster galaxy, which, over time,
tidally destroys its satellite galaxies and adds their mass to its own.
[79]Superclusters are giant collections containing tens of thousands of galaxies, found in clusters, groups and sometimes individually. At the
supercluster scale, galaxies are arranged into sheets and filaments surrounding vast empty voids.
[80] Above this scale, the universe appears to be
isotropic and
homogeneous.
[81]The Milky Way galaxy is a member of an association named the
Local Group, a relatively small group of galaxies that has a diameter of approximately
one megaparsec. The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are the two brightest galaxies within the group; many of the other member galaxies are dwarf companions of these two galaxies.
[82] The Local Group itself is a part of a cloud-like structure within the
Virgo Supercluster, a large, extended structure of groups and clusters of galaxies centered around the
Virgo Cluster.
[83][
edit] Multi-wavelength observation
After galaxies external to the Milky Way were found to exist, initial observations were made mostly using
visible light. The peak radiation of most stars lies here, so the observation of the stars that form galaxies has been a major component of
optical astronomy. It is also a favorable portion of the spectrum for observing ionized
H II regions, and for examining the distribution of dusty arms.
A radio map of the galaxy
Centaurus A (upper left and lower right) is overlaid across the optical image (center), showing two lobes from the jets being generated by an active nucleus (NASA image).
The
dust present in the interstellar medium is opaque to visual light. It is more transparent to
far-infrared, which can be used to observe the interior regions of giant molecular clouds and galactic cores in great detail.
[84] Infrared is also used to observe distant,
red-shifted galaxies that were formed much earlier in the history of the universe. Water vapor and
carbon dioxide absorb a number of useful portions of the infrared spectrum, so high-altitude or space-based telescopes are used for
infrared astronomy.
The first non-visual study of galaxies, particularly active galaxies, was made using
radio frequencies. The atmosphere is nearly transparent to radio between 5
MHz and 30 GHz. (The
ionosphere blocks signals below this range.)
[85] Large radio
interferometers have been used to map the active jets emitted from active nuclei.
Radio telescopes can also be used to observe neutral hydrogen (via
21 centimetre radiation), including, potentially, the non-ionized matter in the early universe that later collapsed to form galaxies.
[86]Ultraviolet and
X-ray telescopes can observe highly energetic galactic phenomena. An ultraviolet flare was observed when a star in a distant galaxy was torn apart from the tidal forces of a black hole.
[87] The distribution of hot gas in galactic clusters can be mapped by X-rays. The existence of super-massive black holes at the cores of galaxies was confirmed through X-ray astronomy.
