UNIT O

SECTION 20.1 ISLANDS OF STARS

Universe contains over 100 billion galaxies
Cosmology: the study of the overall structure and evolution of the universe
Types of Galaxies
Spiral: like Milky Way, flat white disks, yellowish bulge in center, disk has cool gas and
dust, interspersed with hot ionized gas, spiral arms
o s
o Disk population: stars of all ages and masses, located in disk
Disk component: contains less interstellar medium when the bulge is
bigger
o Spheroidal population: halo and bulge, old and low in mass
Spheroidal component: round shape, many different orbits, contains little
cool gas, about the inner 10,000 light years
o Can have a bar of stars across center (barred spiral)
o Lenticular galaxy: has disk and speroidal, but no spiral arms
Elliptical: redder, rounded, sometimes elongated, mostly hot, ionized gas
o Lacks disk component
o Wide range of sizes (giant elliptical galaxies), but most are small
o Lack of cool gas means little ongoing star formation
Irregular: anything that isnt disk-like or rounded
o Mostly contain young, massive stars
o More common when universe was younger
Colors depend on what kind of stars the galaxy contains
o White: results from a mix of different colors and ages
o Red: a lot of old, reddish stars
Sizes: dwarf (108 stars) (1012)
Tuning fork diagram
o E: elliptical, 0-7, larger number= flatter
o S: spiral, SB: barred spirals, a-c means bulge size