# Questions tagged [galaxy]

Questions regarding systems of large numbers of stars held together by gravity.

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### Is the angle of the Earth's orbit on the Galactic plane changing (towards 180 degrees)? [duplicate]

Currently the angle of Earth's orbit is aroun 60 degrees on the Galactic plane. But is this angle changing?
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### Why don't they make an image of the black hole in the M33 galaxy?

Since we see the Triangulum galaxy M33 from a quite vertical position (contrary to our Milky Way and a bit the Andromeda galaxy) it should be easy to image the black hole in the center of it, shouldn'...
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### Can the gravitational potential in a spiral galaxy be positive?

Thinking about this question I wanted to start with a rough model of the average gravitational potential of the Milky way. I ran across D. P. Cox and G. C. Gomez 2002 Analytical Expressions for Spiral ...
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### Why does the star formation rate correlate with the total stellar mass in star forming galaxies?

The so-called "Main Sequence" of star-forming galaxies (e.g., Brinchmann et al. 2004; Noeske et al. 2007) clearly points to a linear relation between the stellar mass of galaxies and their star ...
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### Minimum apparent magnitude of galaxy

currently I'm working on astronomy problem which deals with finding redshift of a galaxy. But the first part asks to derermine apparent magnitude of a galaxy: Find what should be the minimum ...
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### What does Sa and Sab mean for spiral galaxies?

I have learned that the notation to classify spiral galaxies in the De Vaucouleurs system goes like "SA for spirals without bar, SB for spirals with bar and SAB for intermediate spirals". But in some ...
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### Is there a galactic main sequence?

Stars can be plotted on an HR diagram, on which a main sequence is apparent, and stellar evolution can be plotted on on such a diagram as a function of mass. Is there an analog for galactic evolution? ...
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### Must all galaxies in a galaxy cluster have the same expansion rate?

If we observe a distant galaxies cluster where all galaxies travel with the same speed away from us, except for one galaxy whose speed is significantly lower than of the neighboring galaxies. Does ...
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### How do galaxies move in space?

Kind of like a shower thought just occurred to me. We've all seen lots of animation about spiral galaxies, how they crash... in virtually all of them, I recall they move in a frisbee way, that is ...
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### How do disk-shaped galaxies then form at the sites of spherical galactic halos? Do the halo stars start orbiting or just sit in place?

Phys.org's Astronomers detect large amounts of oxygen in ancient star's atmosphere mentions "Stars like J0815+4729 are referred to as halo stars," explained UC San Diego astrophysicist Adam ...
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### How many galaxies have had their distance determined using SNIa?

Supernovae of type Ia can be used as standard candles to determine extra-galactic distances. But these event only occur (roughly) once every 200 years in any given galaxy and rapidly fade away. So to ...
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### Large-Scale instabilities in Disk Galaxies

Multiple sources in literature state that a disk galaxy, without considering the presence of Dark Matter is subject to large-scale instabilities. What is the reason behind the claim? I am looking for ...
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### How the depth[Mpc] is obtained from the redshift

I read this paper. In this paper, they show the three-dimensional distribution of the [OII] emitters. It is mentioned that The depth in z-axis is converted from the redshift, which is estimated from ...
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### In the milky way which star(s) are farthest from galactic plane?

I am looking for at least one star on each of the side of the galactic plane. I understand there would be an error tolerance. So, please do not hesitate if the answer is not exact. Preferably, please ...
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### What is the current angle of motion of the sun with respect to the Galactic Plane?

I understand that the solar system oscillates in its motion around the Milky Way. However at any given time, there must be a specific angle between the current direction of the solar apex and the ...
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### Correlation between stellar mass and galactocentric distance

As we move away from the centre of, say, a spiral galaxy, is there a relation between the stellar mass and distance? I know the how the stellar abundance and density varies with the distance but does ...
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### Elliptical galaxy morphology

I understand what differentiates elliptical galaxies from spiral, lenticular, and irregular galaxies. What is the difference between a compact elliptical (cE) galaxy and a dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxy?...
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### Does the axis of solar system precess during it's motion in the Milky way galaxy?

The plane of solar system makes an angle of 60° with the plane of galaxy. So, the axis of solar system should make 30° angle with the galactic plane. Like the axis of Earth precess over a long period, ...
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### What are the smallest star clusters affected by Galaxy Rotation Curve?

We all know that Milky Way exhibits Galaxy Rotation Curve which makes it rotate very differently that Newtonian mechanics would expect. But Milky Way is a pretty large galaxy, and the one we only see ...
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### How are galactic rotation curves determined from radial velocity measurements?

I have been reading about the deviation of galactic rotation curves from the predicted Keplerian curve to a flat curve at large galactocentric distances. They were the first indicators of the ...
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### Doppler Shift Vs Gravity Assist for Frequency Shifts from Rotating Galaxies

Frequency Shift of Light Leaving Rotating Galaxies: Differences in Doppler Shift due to Radial Velocity Vs Frequency Shift due to Gravity Assist from a Rotating Galaxy A description of estimating ...
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### What percentage of a spiral galaxy is the center/bulge?

Is there a credible source that can tell me how big the bulge of a spiral galaxy is compared to the rest of the galaxy? Unfortunately, I could not find any.
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### Why does the 70-solar-mass black hole in the LB-1 system challenge current astrophysics?

Recently scientists discovered a large stellar-mass black hole, which (previously) they believed that it shouldn't be possible in our galaxy! Source An international team of scientists say they ...
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### “Holes” discovered in the Milky Way Galaxy

Recently I read that Astronomers have noticed a few "holes" in our Galaxy. They are about one million times the mass of our Sun. They are baffled as to what could have caused this and speculate that ...
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### Can we measure stellar accelerations?

Many people concern themselves with understanding the Galactic potential. To me, the most obvious way is to measure the acceleration of a star, as this is directly related to the potential. So, one ...
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### When is the best time to observe M81 from the Northern Hemisphere?

I have read that the best time to view M81 is during the spring. Considering its RA is ~10h and Dec. is +69°, wouldn't February 21st be the best time to view it since this is about when it transits my ...
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### Are there any galaxies visible in the night sky around the Orion constellation?

I'm writing a story for NaNoWriMo, and in it there is an extraterrestrial race whose home galaxy is visible from Earth. This home galaxy is visible (or even partially visible or barely visible) in the ...
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### What is the distance between the solar systems towards the center of galaxy?

The distance from our Solar System to the nearest is roughly 260,000 AU. I am wondering what is the minimum distance between two Solar Systems. Since the center of our galaxy is supposed to be more ...
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### How to convert from FELO-HEL to Km/s?

I am using DS9 to calculate the rotational velocity of a galaxy. I have 21cm cube and I used DS9 to plot this graph I do not understand what is FELO-HEL! and I want to convert the units from FELO-...
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### Photometric redshift - empirical methods (machine learning)

I am currently learning about estimation of photometric redshifts with machine learning methods (or empirical methods in general). These methods use the knowledge about the photometry and the ...
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### What is the history of the Milky Way's relationship with Andromeda?

From what I've read, the Milky Way will collide with Andromeda in about 4 - 5 billion years, and a billion or so years after that the two will merge and become a giant elliptical galaxy. What I'm ...
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### What is the largest cluster of merging galaxies?

Reading about the Andromeda–Milky Way collision, a galactic collision predicted to occur in about 4.5 billion years between the two galaxies, I went to the galaxy merger page and Wikipedia states that ...
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### From what distance will be able to see milky way and andromeda collision? [closed]

Considering that we would out of Milky Way, at what distance would a human will be able to see the collision with naked eye and and how fast would the galaxies appear to be approaching each other
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### What is the meaning of ellipticity of a galaxy being more than 1?

I was recently doing a project on calculating ellipticities of galaxies using SDSS data. I downloaded the stokes parameter values (q and u) from data \$e = 1 - \frac{b}{a} = 1 - \frac{1 - \sqrt{Q^2 + ...
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### Do gravitationally bound (e.g. orbiting) objects really resist the expansion of space?

Thinking about the expansion of space, it is commonly explained that gravitationally bound objects (like galaxies and galaxy clusters) will not be affected by the expansion of space (dark energy). I ...
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### Will intergalactic travel be impossible in roughly 15 billion years?

Even if we (or aliens somewhere in the universe living at that time) somehow invent something that can go just short of the speed of light, will intergalactic travel still be impossible in roughly 15 ...
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### What decides the shape of a galaxy?

As I know, most galaxies are spiral, some elliptical, and a rare type is ring-shaped. What causes a galaxy to become a specific shape (i.e. ring vs spiral)?
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### Are there galaxies with 2 or more super massive black holes orbiting each other?

We now know that most stellar systems have 2 or more stars orbiting each other. Do we know of any galaxies which have 2 or more super massive black holes orbiting each other? Is it possible?
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### What kills us in the event of two galaxies combining?

I find the joining of galaxies interesting as the two eventually become ONE. On series I saw on a discovery channel stated we die. Everyone dies. What is it that causes us to die when the galaxies ...
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### SMC and the Milky Way

Do astronomers have any reason to believe that the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) collided with the Milky Way? If so, how do astronomers think about the concept of collision? Would a collision only ...
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### Could the solar system survive in a void?

If the solar system were suddenly placed in the middle of a large void... would everything still function as normal? Would we even notice any difference here on Earth apart from the night sky? ......
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### Which star / galaxy is moving away from us the fastest?

I know that we have measured the rate a lot of stars and galaxies move away from us using the doppler shift, and I know that the further a star / galaxy is the faster they accelerate away from us due ...
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### Cosmology : Formula for the bias of galaxies

first I have posted originally on the physics stackexchange but I have not had answers about my question, so I try my luck on this specific forum (if forums leaders want to delete the original post on ...
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### Sagittarius star cloud?

I was using SkySafari with my phone, but the compass didn't quite work. So as I knew where the cardinal points were, I think I have shot the Sagittarius star cloud, at least a part of it. Can you ...
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### Does the Milky Way orbit around anything?

We know most of the objects in the Universe have a spherical or elliptical shape. The object which has less mass and gravitational pull orbits around the nearest object with more mass and ...
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### Q: Calculating the luminosity of a galaxy

I am currently working on a project on which I am calculating the luminosity of galaxies by using the SDSS data. They use a system of asinh magnitudes, and according to their website they use a system ...
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### Number of obscured AGN compared to unobscured AGN

Urry and Padovani 1995 proposed a unified model for Active Galactic Nuclei, which has since been recognised as a good model for AGN. If AGN are randomly oriented, then I'd expect there to be more ...
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### How to calculate the distance to galaxies with standard candles?

I was wondering how the distance in Mpc could be calculated between Earth and a galaxy using the luminosity provided? Do not be shy to use all math necessary :)