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Galaxies have different shapes because of what happens throughout their lives. Any galaxy, at one point or another, will encounter another or many galaxies. When encounters occur, gravity takes over. The larger of the two galaxies will consume the smaller one, this is called galactic cannibalism. The act of absorbing another galaxy will change the size of the galaxy it's shape and even the speed of its rotation. Our own galaxy, The Milky Way, is as large it is (100000-150000 Light years across.) because of galactic cannibalism. The Milky Way is as we speak consuming two other small galaxy. And in about 2 billion years, our nearest nieghbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, will collide with our galaxy. Both the Milky Way and Adromeda galaxy are spiral galaxies, but after they collide the resulting new galaxy will an elliptical galaxy, which looks like a bright white sphere.

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14y ago
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6mo ago

The four general shapes of galaxies are spiral, elliptical, irregular, and lenticular. Spiral galaxies have a central bulge with arms that spiral outwards, elliptical galaxies are more rounded and typically lack distinct structure, irregular galaxies lack a defined shape, and lenticular galaxies have a disk structure like spirals but lack the spiral arms.

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12y ago

The main types of galaxies are Spiral galaxies, Elliptical galaxies, Lenticular galaxies, and Irregular galaxies.

  • Spiral (and Barred-Spiral) galaxies are shaped like pinwheels, with arms that spiral outward. The barred spiral has an elongated bar shape across the middle. Examples of the spiral are our own Milky Way and Andromeda. A barred spiral is the Sculptor Galaxy.
  • Elliptical galaxies look like flattened spheres rather than the thinner spiral form. They are observed to have comparatively little interstellar matter. An example is the Maffei 1 galaxy.
  • Lenticular galaxies are flattened galaxies without an obvious spiral structure. An example is the Spindle Galaxy in Draco.
  • Irregular galaxies do not have any of the common shapes, and may have been disrupted by various forces. These include Hoag's Galaxy (a ring), the Magellanic Clouds, and NGC 1427A (which is speeding toward the Fornax cluster).

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6y ago

Spiral galaxies are shaped like large flattened disks that spin around a central super-massive nucleus.

Barred spiral galaxies are similar to standard spiral galaxies, except that the spiral arms emanate from a large central column, or bar, that straddles the galactic core.

Elliptical galaxies have no discernible central core, and they appear to be ellipsoid, or spherical, in overall shape.

Irregular galaxies appear in many chaotic shapes and have little to no overall internal structure.

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15y ago

There are 35 galaxies in the so-called "Local Group" The three largest galaxies are the Milky Way (our own), and the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. However, most of the visible stars we see are part of the Milky Way and two nearby dwarf galaxies, the "Small Magellanic Cloud" and the "Large Magellenic Cloud". There are 10 other dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way.

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15y ago

A galaxy is 99.9% always flat and circular, you may find an odd shaped galaxy that has been affected by gravitational forces caused by a nearby Black Hole. Each Galaxy has 2 spikes of radiation that shoot out from the top and bottom from the middle of the galaxy, in the very centre of a galaxy is a black hole, the galaxy spins because of the extreme mass of gravitational force from within the black hole, if you look at the close resemblance between a black hole and a galaxy you will notice that a black hole is just a dead galaxy which has consumed itself.

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13y ago

Every galaxy is different, but there are three broad categories of galaxies; spiral, elliptical, and irregular. There are also intermediate forms between these, and other forms such as the "barred spiral" galaxy, which is an example of our own Milky Way.

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11y ago

Actually there are usually 4. They are:-

-Spiral galaxy

including Barred spiral galaxy

-Irregular galaxy

-Elliptical galaxy

-Lenticular galaxy

But some classifications may indeed only have 3 types.

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9y ago

barred spiral, elliptical, and normal spiral
Spiral Galaxies are one

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13y ago

There are four main types of galaxies which are Spiralgalaxies, Elliptical galaxies, Lenticular galaxies and Irregular galaxies

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Q: What are four general shapes of galaxies?
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Related questions

Do galaxies all have the same shape?

No, galaxies come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, and irregular galaxies. The shapes of galaxies depend on factors such as their age, size, and interactions with other galaxies.


What are the 4 main galaxy shapes?

There are various ways of categorising galaxies, often based on Edwin Hubble's work on the shapes galaxies. Classifications often give the four main types of galaxies as: Spiral (including barred spiral), Elliptical, Lenticular and Irregular.


Are all galaxies the same size?

All galaxies are different sizes and mainly four different shapes,spiral,barred spiral,elliptical and irregular


What shapes do irregular galaxies have?

Irregular galaxies have no discernible shape.


What shapes of galaxies do contain H II regions?

Spiral and irregular galaxies.


Galaxies are classified by their shape what are they called?

There are three types of galaxies, all of which are the same, with the exception of their shapes. There are the Elliptical galaxies (football-shaped) the Spiral galaxies (like the Milky way; vortex-shaped) and Irregular galaxies (all shapes other than spiral and football shaped).


Do all 100 billion galaxies come in all shapes sizes and colors?

Yes. All 100 billion galaxies come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.


Will astronomers classify all the shapes of the 100 billion galaxies in the universe?

There's an impossible way to classify all the shapes of 100 billion galaxies in the universe.


Will astronomers classify all the shapes of 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe?

Someday astronomers may have classified all the shapes of 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.


What holds stars together to form shapes of galaxies?

GRAVITY!


Do all 100 billion galaxies in the universe come in all shapes sizes and colors?

Yes. All ~100 billion galaxies in the universe come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.


What different shapes do galaxies form?

Galaxies can form different shapes including spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Spiral galaxies have a distinct spiral arm structure, elliptical galaxies are more rounded and oval-shaped, while irregular galaxies lack a defined shape.