First page
Milky way
Spiral galaxies
Elliptical galaxies
Irregular galaxies
Quasars
Find out more


As you may already know our closest star, the Sun, is a part of a galaxy called the Milky way. Most stars form in groups which are called clusters, and many groups like that make up a galaxy. Galaxies come in many different shapes; spiral, elliptical and various other forms which are usually referred to as irregular galaxies.

Hubble developed a classification of galaxies that depends on the appearance of the galaxy. As you can see on the image below not all spiral galaxies have spiral arms but they are classified according to the arms and the central bulge.

The study of galaxies is very interesting since we still know so little about the way they formed and how they managed to create strange objects like quasars that are at the same distances as galaxies but much more energetic.

In this basic tutorial it's impossible to include everything that's interesting about galaxies, so you can find some suggestions of links and books if you want to find out more about galaxies and quasars.


26th July 2000
Sarah Amandusson
www_astro@mssl.ucl.ac.uk