Table of Contents
Why do galaxies have shapes?
The centrifugal force of the spinning gas cloud along with the gravitational pull within the clouds work together to give a galaxy its shape. All galaxies began with an elliptical shape, which is mostly a result of the centrifugal force of the spinning gas cloud. These four types or groupes are devided by their shape.
Why are galaxies not a sphere?
Question: Why do stars and planets appear spherical when galaxies are flat? Answer: Galaxies aren’t completely flat. At the centre of every galaxy is a black hole, which is very dense matter that pulls everything towards it. That black hole is moving through space and spinning very fast.
Why are galaxies not spheres?
Gas clouds produce stars, and so most stars will also be in the plane of the disc. Very old clusters of stars in globular clusters however can be found in a spherical pattern around the disc. So galaxies form disc shapes because the gas that makes stars falls into a disc shape.
Why are galaxies disk shaped?
So galaxies form disc shapes because the gas that makes stars falls into a disc shape. However, not all galaxies are discs. When disc-shaped galaxies collide, this can disturb the orbits of the stars, and you get a galaxy which is “blob” shaped, these are called elliptical galaxies, and are very common.
Are all galaxies the same shape if not what shapes are common?
The simple answer is no! Galaxies don’t all look the same. We find that they come in two main shapes – spiral and elliptical. A third category – irregular – covers galaxies that don’t fit neatly into the spiral or elliptical classification.
Why do stars orbit faster in spiral galaxies?
In spiral galaxies the velocities of stars far from the centre are much faster than expected. Normally circular motion is governed by a balance between gravity (pulling the star towards the galactic centre) and an effective centrifugal force (pulling the star outwards).