Are the Magellanic Clouds irregular galaxies?
The Magellanic Clouds are irregular galaxies that share a gaseous envelope and lie about 22° apart in the sky near the south celestial pole. The Magellanic Clouds are visible to the unaided eye in the Southern Hemisphere, but they cannot be observed from most northern latitudes.
What does an irregular galaxy look like?
Irregular galaxies are the most unusual of galaxies. They don’t seem to fit into either the spiral or elliptical galaxy categories. They don’t have nice spiral arms, but they do have dark patches of gas and dust. Some irregular galaxies clearly look like two galaxies ran into each other!
What does a elliptical galaxy look like?
Elliptical galaxies are ellipsoidal in shape, contain no spiral arms, contain little interstellar gas or dust, and are found mostly in rich clusters of galaxies. Elliptical galaxies appear typically yellow-red, as opposed to spirals which have spiral arms that appear quite blue.
What is a famous irregular galaxy?
The best known examples of irregular galaxies are the Small and Large Magellanic clouds. These are companion galaxies to our own Milky Way, and can be easily seen at dark sites in the Southern Hemisphere.
Is the Pistol Star bigger than the Sun?
Answer: The largest known star (in terms of mass and brightness) is called the Pistol Star. It is believed to be 100 times as massive as our Sun, and 10,000,000 times as bright!
When can you see Magellanic Clouds?
From tropical latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, where it still can be observed, the Large Magellanic Cloud is best seen in the evening from December to April. When the constellation Orion reaches its highest point in the sky, so does the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Are irregular galaxies rare?
About 20% of all galaxies are irregulars.
Why are elliptical galaxies older?
Spiral galaxies are hotbeds of star formation, but elliptical galaxies aren’t nearly as prolific because they contain less gas and dust, which means fewer new (and brighter) stars are born. The existing stars inside an elliptical galaxy tend to be older, giving off more red light than younger stars.
Is the Andromeda an irregular galaxy?
A good example of this type is the Andromeda galaxy. They are very dim in comparison with the very bright spiral galaxies. Irregular galaxies are commonly small, and collectively they make up about a quarter of all the galaxies. They lack a distinct shape or form often having a chaotic appearance.
Is Rigel a white dwarf?
Rigel is a blue supergiant that is the brightest star in the constellation Orion (the Hunter). Due to its measured size and brightness it is expected to end in a supernova one day. It also has two known companions, Rigel B and Rigel C.
Why is the Large Magellanic Cloud considered an irregular type galaxy?
The Large Magellanic Cloud is often listed as an irregular type galaxy because of its appearance, which is likely the result of the galaxy’s tidal interactions with the Milky Way and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), located in Tucana constellation.
What is the size of the Large Magellanic galaxy (LMC)?
Based on readily visible stars and a mass of approximately 10 billion solar masses, the diameter of the LMC is about 14,000 light-years (4.3 kpc). It is roughly a hundredth as massive as the Milky Way and is the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group, after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Milky Way, and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33).
Are the Magellanic clouds moving too fast to be long term companions?
The Large Magellanic Cloud was host galaxy to a supernova ( SN 1987A ), the brightest observed in over four centuries. Measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope, announced in 2006, suggest the Magellanic Clouds may be moving too fast to be long term companions of the Milky Way.
When will the Milky Way collide with the large Magellan collide?
The Milky Way and the LMC are predicted to collide in approximately 2.4 billion years.