Types of Galaxies

If there are different kinds of stars, have you ever wondered if there are also different kinds of galaxies?

The answer to that is yes! Let’s take a look at the 3 most common ones!

Spiral Galaxies

Spiral galaxies are the most common type of galaxies, making up about 77% of all the galaxies in the universe. They have the shape of a disk with many spiral arms coming from the center, which they all rotate in the same direction. In fact our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy.

Elliptical Galaxies

Elliptical galaxies are circular and or oval in shape, the brightness slowly dims down from the center.

Irregular Galaxies

Irregular galaxies are those who cannot be classified neither as a spiral galaxy nor as an elliptical galaxy, simply because they don’t have a specific symmetrical shape as their name suggests.

Other Galaxy Types

These are only the main 3 types of galaxies, but there are more! For example ring galaxies, like Hoag’s object, which as you can see are in the form of a ring!