|
|
Spiral galaxies can be categorized into either normal spiral and barred spiral. Spiral galaxies are
represented by the letter S followed by a lower case a,b, or c. The lower case letter represents
the number of arms and the brightness of the galaxy nucleus, with a representing few arms, bright nucleus
and c representing many arms, dimmer, smaller nucleus. Barred spirals are represented by the letters SB.
They are further classified similar to normal spirals. Another type pf spiral galaxy is the S0 type, this
galaxy has a defined nucleus, unlike the elliptical galaxies, but as yet have no defined arms. This type of
galaxy s sometimes referred to as a lenticular galaxy.
Our own Milky Way as well as the closest large neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, is a spiral galaxy. The Milky Way is
an SBc galaxy.
|
|