What does a elliptical galaxy look like?
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.
What are 3 characteristics of elliptical galaxies?
There are four distinguishing characteristics of the ellipticals: (a) they have much more random star motion than orderly rotational motion (star orbits are aligned in a wide range of angles and have a wide range of eccentricities); (b) they have very little dust and gas left between the stars; (c) this means that they …
How big is the biggest elliptical galaxy?
It is one of the largest known galaxies. Its halo extends about 600 kiloparsecs (2 million light-years) from its core….
| IC 1101 | |
|---|---|
| Galactocentric velocity | 23,395 ± 26 km/s (14,537 ± 16 mi/s) |
| Distance | 1.045 ± 0.073 billion ly (320.4 ± 22.4 Mpc)h −1 0.73 |
| Group or cluster | Abell 2029 |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 14.73 |
How is an elliptical galaxy formed?
Giant elliptical galaxies are generally thought to be the result of galaxy mergers. Ordinary elliptical galaxies may also form in this manner, or may have formed from the gravitational collapse of an interstellar gas cloud.
Can life exist in an elliptical galaxy?
Based on numbers of stars, supernova rates, and metallicity, a prior study concluded that large elliptical galaxies contain up to 10 000 times more habitable planets than the Milky Way and are thus the ‘cradles of life’.
What are elliptical galaxy made of?
Elliptical galaxies are made up of mostly old stars, and do not have much gas and dust. There is very little new star formation in these galaxies. Elliptical galaxies also come in many sizes. The largest galaxies we see are ellipticals, but, elliptical galaxies can also be small.
What is the tallest thing in the universe?
Tallest mountain: Olympus Mons on Mars, roughly 15 miles (25 km) high and three times the height of Mount Everest on Earth.
What is elliptical galaxy?
What Are Elliptical Galaxies? Elliptical galaxies are the most abundant type of galaxies found in the universe but because of their age and dim qualities, they’re frequently outshone by younger, brighter collections of stars. Elliptical galaxies lack the swirling arms of their more well-known siblings, spiral galaxies.