Dieses Portal bietet Basiswissen zum Thema Astronomie und zeigt aktuelle Forschungsarbeiten und -kooperationen in der Schweiz auf.

Image: ESO

Galaxies

Galaxies in many different shapes
Image: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Galaxies are huge systems of stars that are gravitationally bound. One example is our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way accommodates about 100 billion stars, among them our sun and every familiar constellation star in the firmament.

However, we can peer beyond our own galaxy edge: To the naked eye, our neighbor galaxy, the Andromeda, looks like a blurred spot. Only a telescope bares the beautiful spiral structure of Andromeda plus, it reveals countless other galaxies out there with many different shapes and colors.

This galaxy diversity turns the Universe into a colorful place, but it also poses questions about the formation of these stellar structures. Why do some galaxies appear like perfect spirals, whereas others resemble a chaotic bunch of stars?

Viele Galaxien haben keinen echten Namen, sondern vielmehr eine Katalog-Nummer.

Zwei wichtige Kataloge sind:

New General Catalogue
NGC
Messier Catalogue
→ M
  1. Milchstrasse
    (Heimatgalaxie)
  2. Sagittarius
  3. Ursa Major II
  4. Coma Berenices
  5. Grosse Magellanische Wolke
  6. Kleine Magellanische Wolke
  7. Ursa Minor
  8. Boötes
  9. Draco
  10. Sculptor
  1. NGC 55
  2. NGC 205
  3. M32
  4. M31
  5. NGC 247
  6. NGC 253
  7. Kleine Maggelanische Wolke
  8. NGC 300
  9. M33
  10. Fornax