Which classification describes the milky way

Elliptical galaxies on the left look roughly egg-shaped and are relatively featureless. All that can usually be detected is a decrease in surface brightness as one move outwards from the center of the galaxy. Apparent shapes range from almost circular E0 to quite elliptical E6 - these have the long axis four times the short axis.

Disc galaxies have a bulge in the center, which is very similar to an elliptical galaxy, but outside of that they have a thin disc of stars. The disc is usually fairly close to being circular in shape. However, because galaxies are randomly oriented relative to our line of sight, we see most of them tilted, giving them a more or less elliptical shape in the sky, somewhere between face-on and edge-on.

The greater the viewing angle, the more elliptical they appear i. For the same reason an elliptical galaxy may well be a lot flatter in reality than it appears to us. Most disc galaxies Sa, Sb, Sc above also have spiral arms and are called spiral galaxies.

A few disc galaxies S0, SB0 do not have any spiral arms and these are called lenticular or 'lens shaped' galaxies. They consist of a disc and a smaller bulge of variable size. Spirally coiled bacteria are called. Spiral valve is present in-. Analogous mass in spiral motion. Spiral cleavage is not found in. What is alternate spiral phyllotaxy?

Spiral cleavage is found in. Spiral valve is present in. Name an alga which has spiral chloroplast. Are these Answers Helpful? Yes No. Additional clues to the spiral nature of the Milky Way come from a variety of other properties.

Astronomers measure the amount of dust in the Milky Way and the dominant colors of the light we see, and they match those we find in other typical spiral galaxies. All of this adds up to give us a picture of the Milky Way, even though we can't get outside to see the whole thing. There are billions of other galaxies in the Universe. Only three galaxies outside our own Milky Way Galaxy can be seen without a telescope, and appear as fuzzy patches in the sky with the naked eye.

The closest galaxies that we can see without a telescope are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These satellite galaxies of the Milky Way can be seen from the southern hemisphere. Even they are about , light years from us.

The Andromeda Galaxy is a larger galaxy that can be seen from the northern hemisphere with good eyesight and a very dark sky.

It is about 2. The other galaxies are even further away from us and can only be seen through telescopes. An all-sky image shows the flat plane of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: E. Since we can't get outside the Milky Way, we have to rely on markers of spiral arms like young, massive stars and ionized clouds.