Archives for the 'galaxies' Category
The Hubble Galaxy Classification System
Published on 14 Oct 2006 at 2:01 am.
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Every now and then, you’ll hear an astronomy talking about a galaxy, and the galaxy may be referred to as “an elliptical”, or an “Sb”, or perhaps and “SBa” galaxy. So, just what is all this about? This goes back to a system of classifying galaxies by their appearance developed by Edwin Hubble […]
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Baade’s Window
Published on 7 Jul 2006 at 4:29 pm.
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Walter Baade was one of the most important astrophysicists of the Twentieth Century. He is known for many things, including the first description of supernovae and the identification of stellar populations. Virtually every work that he published was significant. One of his lesser known discoveries we call Baade’s Window.
Our galaxy is shaped sort of like […]
Oort’s Constants, and the Rotation of the Galaxy
Published on 31 May 2006 at 5:22 pm.
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When you look at the stars night after night, they seem to always be in the same position relative to each other. In fact, if you were to observe a constellation year after year for the rest of your life, the stars would always appear to be in the same orientation. However, they are not […]
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M 82
Published on 25 Apr 2006 at 6:46 pm.
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M 82 is the eighty second object on Charles Messier’s list of fuzzy things that are not comets. It is located in Ursa Major, forward of the bowl of the Big Dipper. Actually, it is right next to another Messier object, M 81, in the sky. Both M 81 and M 82 are galaxies, and […]
Where is the center of the galaxy?
Published on 31 Mar 2006 at 11:00 am.
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This seems a straightforward question. However, it took a long time for astronomers to figure out the answer. Why the difficulty? Well, quite simply, the center of the galaxy is a long ways away, and it is not directly visible. In fact, since we are inside the galaxy, we don’t even get a good view […]
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Snickers
Published on 28 Feb 2006 at 12:17 pm.
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Don’t let anyone tell you that astronomers don’t have a sense of humor!
A case in point is a small satellite of the Milky Way. Our galaxy has a number of smaller galaxies orbiting it as satellites. The most well known of these are the Magellanic Clouds. However, there are a host of smaller bodies orbiting […]
Globular Clusters
Published on 10 Dec 2005 at 7:51 pm.
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Filed under galaxies, star clusters, stars.
Over at Tom’s Astronomy Blog he has a posting about an image that he took of the globular cluster M71. It is actually a very good image. One of my favorite globular clusters is M13, probably because it was the first one that I saw. Globular clusters are really very interesting objects. They are often […]
