What stars does elliptical galaxies contain?
In general, the stars in elliptical galaxies are old, red stars. These galaxies look the same from all angles, too. Astronomers used the ages of the red stars in the elliptical galaxies to determine that these galaxies are pretty old. Maybe they were spirals once with gas and dust in spiral arms.
What is the composition of most elliptical galaxies?
Most elliptical galaxies are composed of older, low-mass stars, with a sparse interstellar medium and minimal star formation activity, and they tend to be surrounded by large numbers of globular clusters.
What do elliptical galaxies not contain?
Ellipticals are old. The stars that live within them are among the oldest in the universe. Unlike their spiral cousins, elliptical galaxies have shut down their star formation engines. Devoid of much of the needed gas and dust, they no longer create new stars.
What are elliptical galaxies made of?
Elliptical galaxies are made up of mostly old stars, and do not have much gas and dust. There is very little new star formation in these galaxies. Elliptical galaxies also come in many sizes. The largest galaxies we see are ellipticals, but, elliptical galaxies can also be small.
How many stars are in elliptical galaxies?
But ellipticals can also stretch to more than a million light-years across, and contain more than ten trillion stars.
What do all galaxies contain?
Galaxies are sprawling systems of dust, gas, dark matter, and anywhere from a million to a trillion stars that are held together by gravity. Nearly all large galaxies are thought to also contain supermassive black holes at their centers.
Do elliptical galaxies contain black holes?
It is now widely accepted that virtually every elliptical galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its centre with its mass tightly correlated with the mass and stellar velocity dispersion of the galaxy itself (e.g. Ferrarese & Merritt 2000; Tremaine et al. 2002).
How are elliptical galaxies created?
When two spirals collide, they lose their familiar shape, morphing into the less-structured elliptical galaxies. A supermassive black hole is thought to lie at the center of these ancient galaxies. These gluttonous giants consume gas and dust, and may play a role in the slower growth of elliptical galaxies.
Where are elliptical galaxies found?
galaxy clusters
Four classes are used to classify galaxies: spiral; barred spiral; elliptical and irregular. Elliptical galaxies have a smooth ellipsoidal or spherical appearance, and they have far less structure than spiral galaxies do. Elliptical galaxies are typically found in galaxy clusters.
What is a elliptical galaxy NASA?
Elliptical galaxies are shaped like stretched-out circles, or ellipses. Some elliptical galaxies are more stretched out than others. One might look almost perfectly circular. Another one might look long and flat. Elliptical galaxies contain mostly older stars.
Why are elliptical galaxies the most common?
Elliptical galaxies are the most abundant type of galaxies found in the universe but because of their age and dim qualities, they’re frequently outshone by younger, brighter collections of stars. Elliptical galaxies lack the swirling arms of their more well-known siblings, spiral galaxies.