Test me

[SSY]

I have a galaxy classification test on friday, I need your help.

In this thread, post a picture of a galaxy preferably with its name, I will classify for it you. If there are any galaxies that have been bothering you recently, and you want a second opinion on the degree of their bar, or how lenticular they are, here is the place to get some advice.

I'll get this rolling.



NGC 51, on account of the small bulge, well resolved arms that are fairly loosley wound, im going with normal spiral class c, or

"Sc" in tuning fork vernacular.

[karadan]

What a cool topic!

This is the pinwheel galaxy.
(sorry for the link but it is too wide for the forum and i prefer the larger pic - tis more majestic)..


http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/screen/heic0602a.jpg

[SSY]

hmmmmm, Pinwheel eh?

Small central bulge again, the arms are more tightly wound, looks like to me, but they have very well defiend nebulae and star clusters in them, I'd go with Sb for that badboy.

[karadan]

The Andromeda galaxy..

[karadan]

Galaxy NGC6822

[SSY]

The Andromeda galaxy..

now, this one is close, it does not look substantially different from a lenticular, though this is from the edge on picture, there are soem spiral arms visible.

Though look at that bulge! what a bulge, this would classifiy for me as Sa, quite an "early type" galaxy, there could be minimal barring in there, so I may go with SBa.

Thanks for the help so far by the way!

[SSY]

Galaxy NGC6822

Wow this is some irregular looking galaxy right here.]

Though, due to the low brightness envelope, I am tempted to call it  dwarf eliptical, it barley has more luminosity than the stars in the forground, unfortunatley, i can't tell wether it is weak or far away though.

The other thing messing with me is the spectral type, there look to be a lot of O B class stars in there, this is not at all typical of eleipticals, or dwarf ellipticals, which leads me back to thinking irregular. the smudgy tail leads me to think this as well.

Im going to go with Irr2, it seems quite smooth, hence the 2, as opposed to one.

[karadan]

Hehe, well done. The second one was described as 'irregular' from the place i got it.

The Andromeda galaxy will collide with ours in 5billion years time, don'tcha know

I'll try posting more when i get back from work and the pub.

[SSY]

Much obliged old bean



real astronomers cover their nipples with their belts, FACT

[curiosityandthecat]

Dude, this is way cooler than what we did in my Astronomy class. Granted, that was my freshman year, and it was 101, and most the kids thought a parsec is a measure of time because of goddamn George Lucas, but still!

[SSY]

This test is the only part of the course I am worried about, I just have no idea what she is going to throw at us, so I am preparing for the worst.

Also, my favorite Galaxy, M104, or more commonly the sombrero galaxy.



While at first glance, it apears and unbarred lenticular ( So3 due to the dust lanes ), it is in fact a spiral galaxy, it has extremley tightly wound arms, and the arms are smooth in their complexion, denoting it as Sa, maybe Sab if I am feeling ungenerous with it's bulge, which is a bit small for a galaxy of this type.

[Whitney]

there is a larger image of it in the link.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/new ... ament.html

[SSY]

there is a larger image of it in the link.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/new ... ament.html

 i have no idea, that looks like no galaxy I have ever seen. It's really smooth looking, but with a weird irregular shape. If pushed I would go for Irr1 due to the splotchy appearance, but it does not look quite right. Either there are some really large clouds in that galaxy, or that galaxy is so massive/far away telescopes can't resolve the stars properly.

The Blue starts are suggestive of a really young galaxy, but most young galaxies do not have that crazy shape.

I would go with some crazy irregular galaxy type, Irr1, perhaps.

[Whitney]

I would go with some crazy irregular galaxy type, Irr1, perhaps.

I just posted it because the article described it as a huge glaxy and I had never seen anything that looked like that called a galaxy...I don't know what shape is the correct answer.

[BadPoison]

From the article:

Wide-field telescope observations of the remote and therefore early Universe, looking back to a time when it was a fifth of its present age (redshift = 2.38), have revealed an enormous string of galaxies about 300 million light-years long.

It's not one galaxy. I guess this would be similar to the sloan great wall (or perhaps the same structure, based on the date of the article. The article doesn't mention a name.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloan_Great_Wall