The goals specific to Astronomy 162, Introduction to Stellar, Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy, are to explore the physical

nature of the stars, galaxies and the universe as a whole, including their constituents, formation and evolution. Example questions we will answer: Where do stars come from?, Are there really black holes and what are they?, How did galaxies get to be the way they are?, How did the universe form?. We will do many demonstrations, hands-on activities, and computer based activities which will help you understand our universe and the physical laws that govern it. Hopefully, by the end of the course you will have a greater appreciation for our universe and our place in it. Extragalactic Astronomy
a branch of astronomy studying celestial bodies and systems that lie beyond our stellar system, the Milky Way galaxy. The formation of this branch of astronomy was preceded by a long period for determining what types of celestial bodies make up our stellar system and what types are found outside it. At the end of the first quarter of the 20th century it was conclusively established that our stellar system has finite dimensions and at the same time does not exhaust the entire stellar universe. It was called the Galaxy (the Milky Way galaxy). Also established was the existence of other stellar systems which, because of their closed nature and independent position in space, were called galaxies. The totality of all galaxies, called the metagalaxy, is the most extensive system known to science. The most distant of the brightest galaxies, whose distances it has been possible to establish, are located over 1 billion par-sees away from us. The exact value of this maximum distance cannot be indicated since, first, more and more remote objects become known almost annually and, second, the result of computing distances based on quantities obtained directly from observations depends on the assumed proper-ties of space in the metagalaxy, which have not been sufficiently studied. Nevertheless, it may be asserted that the most distant of the known galaxies are not at the limits of the metagalaxy. The results of investigations obtained by extragalactic astronomy are the main observational material for cosmology. In studying natural phenomena on a very large scale, extragalactic astronomy encounters new, previously unknown, phenomena and perhaps even new laws of nature. The results of extragalactic astronomy greatly assist the study of our galaxy. This is conditioned by the fact that we observe other galaxies from the outside and as a whole, but we must study our own galaxy from within. This is more difficult for a number of reasons. The solar system is located within the dusty equatorial layer of our galaxy, which severely reduces our zone of visibility, especially in directions close to the plane of the galactic equator. Other galaxies are seen as a whole and from various points of view depending on their random orientation with respect to our line of sight. But be-cause of the great distances to the galaxies, the various-type stars that make up these galaxies can almost never be ob-served separately. However, data on the types of stars and their motions in our galaxy contribute to a better understanding of other stellar systems. The distribution of galaxies in space is not uniform. Most of them are concentrated in compact or scattered clusters of galaxies containing from dozens to tens of thousands of members. The rates of motion of galaxies in clusters, measured by spectrograms based on the Doppler effect, are random in direction and may be as high as 2,000 km/sec. In some cases these velocities are so great that they may prove sufficient for galaxies to leave a cluster. The question as to what extent the distribution of galactic clusters in the metagalaxy may be considered uniform has not yet been answered. On the one hand, the majority of galaxies are concentrated in randomly scattered clusters and, on the other, no marked asymmetry in the distribution of clusters and no tight crowding are observed. The question of whether the real universe is uniform or nonuniform is important to cosmology. The metagalactic space between galaxies is not empty. There are many small stellar systems, individual stars, rarefied gas, and cosmic dust in it as well as cosmic rays. Moreover, the intensity of the fieldsincluding the gravitational and magnetic fieldsare nonzero. The study of these fields is also part of the task of extragalactic astronomy.

At the turn of the 19th century, the English astronomer W. Herschel was the first to compile extensive catalogs of the bright nebulous spots visible in the sky. Investigations showed that some of them, when viewed through strong tele-scopes, proved to consist of stars. At the same time, how-ever, the existence of nebulas consisting of a continuous dif-fuse medium was recognized. This was finally proved in the second half of the 19th century by spectral analysis. The spectrum of some nebulas proved to consist of bright lines that belonged to rarefied gases. For other nebulas it resembled the spectrum of star clusterscontinuous, with absorption lines; such nebulas constituted an overwhelming majority. Later it was learned that a small percentage of nebulas with such a spectrum do not constitute stellar systems but are clouds of cosmic dust shining with the reflected light of bright stars. In the 1920s, E. Hubble (of the United States) was able to prove that gaseous and dust nebulas are found even among objects comparatively close to us. Somewhat earlier H. Shapley succeeded in determining the distances to globular star clusters, of which the most distant resolve into stars only with difficulty, even through the most powerful telescopes. The nature of the remaining nebulous spots (and there is a tremendous number of them; the catalogs contain about 30,000 objects up to the 15th visual stellar magnitude) was clarified by the middle of the 1920s. As early as the middle of the 19th century the English scientist W. Parsons (Earl of Rosse) observed a spiral structure in the largest of them, but the diversity and fineness of the structure of nebulas were brought to light only after the introduction into astronomical practice of photography and telescopes of increased power. The Swedish astronomer K. Lundmark, observing in spiral nebulas the scarcely noticeable nova outbursts, which actually were of tremendous luminosity, concluded that spiral nebulas lie beyond our galaxy. Subsequently it was learned that stars whose explosions were observed in galaxies most often were not new stars but supernovas, hundreds of times brighter, as a result of which the estimates of distances to spiral nebulas made by Lundmark had to be increased. Not a single supernova has been observed in our galaxy since the invention of the telescope. Therefore the study of these interesting celestial bodies rests mainly on the results of extragalactic astronomy. Later, Hubble determined more precisely the distances and dimensions of the spiral galaxies M31 (the Great Nebula in Andromeda), M33 (in the Triangulum constellation), and NGC 6822 (in Sagittarius). He proved the great similarity of these stellar systems to our galaxy by establishing that they all contain stars of identical types, identical star clusters, diffuse gaseous nebulas, and novas. These discoveries, like many that followed in extragalactic astronomy, were accomplished with the aid of the largest telescopes in the world, mounted in the United States. In 1924-25 variable stars, including the cepheids, whose luminosity is known to be connected with the period of variation of their brightness, were detected in photographs of nearby spiral galaxies. Thus, by determining the luminosity on the basis of the observed variation in the brightness and by comparing it with the visual stellar magnitude of these celestial bodies, it is possible to estimate distances to the cepheids and hence to the galaxies containing them. (The dimensions of galaxies are small in comparison with the distances to them.) The cepheid method of determining distances to remote stellar systems is most accurate but is applicable only to the closest ones. For more remote systems, including the most distant systems observed at present, the method of determining distances to galaxies from the line shift in the spectrum of the galaxies, the so-called red shift, is best. In 1924, K. Lundmark and K. Wiertz (of Germany) discovered that the greater the distance to a galaxy the more strongly its spectrum is displaced toward the red end. Later, the magnitude of the red shift caused by movement away from us (the Doppler effect) was determined more precisely. In determining distances by this method it is assumed that for each million parsecs of distance the red shift increases by approximately 100 km/sec (Hubbles law). This systematic shift due to the expansion of the metagalaxy has superposed on it the shift of spectral lines (toward the red or blue end) due to the individual velocities of the galaxies, which do not usually exceed 1,000 km/sec. Because of this, the method of determining distances by the red shift of spectral lines is unreliable when applied to nearby galaxies. The tasks of extragalactic astronomy are to study photo-graphically the shapes and types of galaxies, to classify galaxies (the foundation for which was laid by Hubble), to measure the stellar magnitudes and colors of galaxies on the whole and of individual sections, and to investigate the principles governing the structure and composition of galactic clusters. The number and distribution of various objects of various luminosities are studied in the closest galaxies. By means of spectral analysis the

rates of motion and the laws governing the rotation of galaxies are studied. This provides material for determining their masses. The chemical composition of the stars making up the galaxies is also studied and compared. Electron image intensifies, which reduce the expo-sure time and make it possible to photograph very faint objects, are used in the photography of galaxies. New possibilities were offered to extragalactic astronomy by the methods of radioastronomy. With their aid, fundamentally new objects and phenomena in the metagalaxy have been discovered. Among such objects are the so-called radio galaxies, characteristic of which is extraordinarily powerful radiation in the radio band apparently originating from elementary particles of tremendous energy moving in the magnetic fields of some galaxies, and quasars, whose nature is still insufficiently studied. On the basis of the very large red shifts in the spectra of most observed quasars, the conclusion is already being drawn, however, that many of them are at distances of several billion parsecs. So-called quasistellar galaxies, which are starlike objects that have no strong and perhaps not even moderate radio emissions, are similar to quasars in luminosity and spectrum. They are dozens of times more numerous than quasars. At the same time there is much in common between the turbulent processes in quasars and the nuclei of some galaxies. In the USSR the most extensive theoretical and observational investigations in extragalactic astronomy are being conducted at the Biurakan Astrophysical Observatory of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR and at the P. K. Shternberg State Astronomical Institute of Moscow University

Hubble Galaxy
may be viewed as the basic building blocks for the large-scale visible stucture of the Universe. There are may galaxy types, having rather diverse features. Therefore, it is useful to have a way to classify galaxies into different types.

The Tuning Fork Diagram

Hubble introduced the classification scheme illustrated in the following figure, which separates most galaxies into elliptical, normal spiral, and barred spiral categories, and then sub-classifies these categories with respect to properties such as the amount of flattening for elliptical galaxies and the nature of the arms for spiral galaxies. The galaxies that do not fit into these categories are classified separately as irregular galaxies.

This diagram is termed the Hubble classification scheme, or (because of its shape) the "tuning fork diagram".

Examples of Hubble Galaxy Types

Here are some examples of specific galaxies that illustrate some of the Hubble classification types.

M81: Type Sb spiral NGC2997: Type Sc spiral M95: Type SBa barred spiral NGC1365: Type SBb barred spiral Leo I: Type E3 (dwarf) elliptical M110: Type E6 elliptical

Small Magellanic Cloud: Irregular type Many galaxies take the form of ellipsoids, with no spiral structure or flattened disks. Elliptical galaxies constitute approximately 10% of observed galaxies.

Examples of Elliptical Galaxies

The adjacent image shows an example, the giant elliptical galaxy M87 in the center of the Virgo cluster (click on the image for a larger version). Some other examples of elliptical galaxies include M32, which is an E2 dwarf elliptical near the Andromeda Galaxy, and the E6 elliptical galaxy M110, another satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy.

The Hubble Classification

In the Hubble sequence E0, E1, E2, ... E7, the number is related to how flattened the ellipse appears to be, with E0 corresponding to no flattening and E7 to a very elongated ellipse. The Hubble classification scheme uses the apparent ellipticity, so it refers to the projection of the galaxy's shape on the celestial sphere, not its actual shape.

Properties of Elliptical Galaxies

The masses of elliptical galaxies cover a large range: from about 107 up to 1013 solar masses. The corresponding range of diameters is about 1/10 kpc up to about 100 kpc, and the absolute blue magnitude varies over a correspondingly large range from -8 to -23. Thus, the smallest of the elliptical galaxies, which are called dwarf ellipticals, may be only a little larger than globular clusters, while the giant elliptical galaxies like M87 are among the largest galaxies in the Universe. This is a much larger range in size than is seen for the spiral galaxies. Elliptical galaxies exhibit far less evidence for young stars, gas, or dust than do spiral galaxies, and have larger random motion of stars than in spiral galaxies where the motion is a more ordered rotation. Irregular Galaxies Approximately 3% of galaxies observed cannot be classified as either ellipsoidal or spirals. These galaxies have little symmetry in their structure and are termed irregular galaxies. An example is Sextans A, shown in the image on the right. This irregular galaxy is a member of the Local Group, at a distance of about 10 million light years (Ref). The blue regions are clusters of young stars; the brighter stars are members of our own Milky Way galaxy in the foreground. Other examples of irregular galaxies are the Large Magellanic Cloud (a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way) and the Messier object M82.

Properties of Irregular Galaxies

Irregular galaxies have masses in the range 108 to 1010 solar masses, diameters from 1 to 10 kpc, and blue magnitudes from -13 to -20. Other than that, they have few systematic features.

Peculiar Galaxies
Hubble's original classification just lumped all galaxies that are not spirals or elliptical into the irregular category, but it is more common today to make further distinction between more "normal" irregular galaxies and peculiar galaxies, which are galaxies that look unusual in some respect (M82, for instance). For example, some of these are objects that have been tidally distorted by interaction with another galaxy that we shall discuss in conjunction with colliding galaxies. Others are active galaxies with some evidence of violent internal processes taking place. Still others may be more normal galaxies, but

given an unusual appearance because of obscuring dust. We shall discuss these special kinds of irregular galaxies separately later.

Spiral Galaxies

Galaxies come in a variety of shapes, with the shapes depending in a way not yet completely understood on the evolution of the galaxies. More than half of all observed galaxies are spiral galaxies.

Examples of Spiral Galaxies

The figure below right shows a nice spiral galaxy, M100, which is in the Virgo cluster Another beautiful example of a spiral galaxy is M83. Presumably our own galaxy would resemble these galaxies in appearance if we could view it from the outside. The below left image shows a class Sc spiral galaxy M101 (NGC 5457; also called the Pinwheel Galaxy), which lies at a distance of about 7 Mpc or 22 million light years (Ref).

Properties of Spiral Galaxies

The range of masses for spiral galaxies is ~ 109 - 1012 solar masses, with the typical mass being ~ 1011 solar masses. The typical range of luminosities corresponds to absolute blue magnitude -16 to -23, and the typical diameter of the visible disk is 5-100 kpc. The Milky Way is a member of a group of galaxies termed the Local Group that contains approximately 20 bright galaxies and 30 galaxies total. The largest galaxies in the local group are the spirals Andromeda (M31) and the Milky Way.

Some Galaxies in the Local Group

The two closest galaxies to the Milky Way are called the Magellanic Clouds, which may be viewed as satellite galaxies to the Milky Way at a distance of a little less than 200,000 light years. They are only visible in the Southern Hemisphere, but can easily be seen by the naked-eye and their brightest stars can be seen with binoculars. They are irregular galaxies and are much smaller

The Large Magellanic Cloud than the Milky Way.

Two galaxies are visible to the nakedeye in the Northern Hemisphere. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is a great spiral galaxy much like our own at a distance of about 3 million light years (a little less than 3 Mpc). To the naked eye it is a faint fuzzy patch that appears, with binoculars, as a lens The Andromeda Galaxy shaped object. It has two dwarf elliptical satellite galaxies visible through a small telescope. The other galaxy of the local group that is visible to the naked eye is the spiral M33 in Triangulum at a distance comparable to that of Andromeda. It too is a spiral galaxy, but it is smaller than Andromeda and therefore is harder to see.

Some Other Nearby Groups of Galaxies

Some other nearby groups of galaxies are listed in the following table. All told, there are about 20 small groups of galaxies lying nearer to us than the Virgo rich cluster. Some Nearby Groups of Galaxies

Group Name
M81Numbe r of MembersDi stance (Mpc) Sculptor Centaurus M101 M66 + M96 NGC 1023

3.1

6 17 5 ~10 6

1.8 3.5 7.7 9.4 9.5

The Hubble constant H is one of the most important numbers in cosmology because it may be used to estimate the size and age of the Universe. It indicates the rate at which the universe is expanding. Although the Hubble "constant" is not really constant because it changes with time (and therefore should probably more properly be called

the "Hubble parameter"). The Hubble constant is often written with a subscript "0" to denote explicitly that it is the value at the present time, but we shall not do so.

The Hubble Expansion Law

In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced that almost all galaxies appeared to be moving away from us. This phenomenon was observed as a redshift of a galaxy's spectrum. This redshift appeared to have a larger displacement for faint, presumably further, galaxies. Hence, the farther a galaxy, the faster it is receding from Earth. The Hubble constant is given by H = v/d where v is the galaxy's radial outward velocity, d is the galaxy's distance from earth, and H is the current value of the Hubble constant.

Determining the Hubble Constant

Obtaining a true value for H is complicated. Two measurements are required. First, spectroscopic observations reveal the galaxy's redshift, indicating its radial velocity. The second measurement, the most difficult value to determine, is the galaxy's precise distance from Earth. The value of H itself must be derived from a sample of galaxies that are far enough away that motions due to local gravitational influences are negligibly small (these are called peculiar motion, and they represent deviations from the Hubble Law).

Units for Hubble's Constant

The units of the Hubble constant are "kilometers per second per megaparsec." In other words, for each megaparsec of distance, the velocity of a distant object appears to increase by some value. For example, if the Hubble constant was determined to be 50 km/s/Mpc, a galaxy at 10 Mpc would have a redshift corresponding to a radial velocity of 500 km/s.

Current Value of the Hubble Constant

The value of the Hubble constant initially obtained by Hubble was around 500 km/s/Mpc, and has since been radically revised because initial assumptions about stars yielded underestimated distances. For the past three decades, there have been two major lines of investigation into the Hubble constant. One team, associated with Allan Sandage of the Carnegie Institutions, has derived a value for H around 50 km/s/Mpc. The other team, associated with Gerard DeVaucouleurs of the University of Texas, has obtained values that indicate H to be around 100 km/s/Mpc.

Hubble Time
The inverse of the Hubble constant H has the units of time because the Hubble law is v=Hd

where v is the velocity of recession, H is the Hubble constant, and d is the distance. Thus, from this equation, we have that 1/H = d/v. but d/v is distance divided by velocity, which is time (e.g., if I travel 180 miles at 60 miles/hour, the time required is t = d/v = 180/60 = 3 hours). Thus, the Hubble time T is just the inverse of the Hubble Constant:
T=1/H

Taking a value of H = 20 km/s/Mly (where Mly means mega-light years),

where all the factors are necessary to convert the time units to years and I've rounded some numbers to simplify the display. The physical interpretation of the Hubble time is that it gives the time for the Universe to run backwards to the Big Bang if the expansion rate (the Hubble "constant") were constant. Thus, it is a measure of the age of the Universe. The Hubble "constant" actually isn't constant, so the Hubble time is really only a rough estimate of the age of the Universe. Reasonable assumptions for the value of the Hubble constant and the geometry of the Universe typically yield ages of 10-20 billion years for the age of the Universe. For example, H near 50 km/s/Mpc gives a larger value for the age of the Universe (around 16 thousand million years), while a larger value of 80 km/s/Mpc gives a lower value for the age (around 10 thousand million years). Therefore, we shall take this information, and additional information from other methods to estimate the age of the Universe that we have not discussed, to indicate an age of approximately 15 billion years for the Universe. A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbits a galactic core as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers. The name of this category of star cluster is derived from the Latin globulusa small sphere. A globular cluster is sometimes known more simply as a globular. Globular clusters, which are found in the halo of a galaxy, contain considerably more stars and are much older than the less dense galactic, or open clusters, which are found in the disk. Globular clusters are fairly common; there are about 150[2] to 158[3] currently known globular clusters in the Milky Way, with perhaps 10 to 20 more still undiscovered.[4] Large galaxies can have more: Andromeda, for instance, may have as many as 500.[5] Some giant elliptical galaxies, particularly those at the centers of galaxy clusters, such as M87,[6] have as many as 13,000 globular clusters. These globular clusters orbit the galaxy out to large radii, 40 kiloparsecs (approximately 131,000 light-years) or more.[7]

Every galaxy of sufficient mass in the Local Group has an associated group of globular clusters, and almost every large galaxy surveyed has been found to possess a system of globular clusters.[8] The Sagittarius Dwarf and Canis Major Dwarf galaxies appear to be in the process of donating their associated globular clusters (such as Palomar 12) to the Milky Way. [9] This demonstrates how many of this galaxy's globular clusters might have been acquired in the past. Although it appears that globular clusters contain some of the first stars to be produced in the galaxy, their origins and their role in galactic evolution are still unclear. It does appear clear that globular clusters are significantly different from dwarf elliptical galaxies and were formed as part of the star formation of the parent galaxy rather than as a separate galaxy.[10] However, recent conjectures by astronomers suggest that globular clusters and dwarf spheroidals may not be clearly separate and distinct types

Types of galaxies
PRINCIPAL SCHEMES OF CLASSIFICATION
Almost all current systems of galaxy classification are outgrowths of the initial scheme proposed by Hubble in 1926. In Hubble's scheme, which is based on the optical appearance of galaxy images on photographic plates, galaxies are divided into three general classes: ellipticals, spirals, and irregulars. His basic definitions are as follows:

Elliptical galaxies.
Galaxies of this class have smoothly varying brightnesses, with the degree of brightness steadily decreasing outward from the centre. They appear elliptical in shape, with lines of equal brightness made up of concentric and similar ellipses. These galaxies are nearly all of the same colour: they are somewhat redder than the Sun.

Spiral galaxies.
These galaxies are conspicuous for their spiral-shaped arms, which emanate from or near the nucleus and gradually wind outward to the edge. There are usually two opposing arms arranged symmetrically around the centre. The nucleus of a spiral galaxy is a sharp-peaked area of smooth texture, which can be quite small or, in some cases, can make up the bulk of the galaxy. The arms are embedded in a thin disk of stars. Both the arms and the disk of a spiral system are blue in colour, whereas its central areas are red like an elliptical galaxy.

Irregular galaxies.
Most representatives of this class consist of grainy, highly irregular assemblages of luminous areas. They have no noticeable symmetry nor obvious central nucleus, and they are generally bluer in colour than are the arms and disks of

spiral galaxies. An extremely small number of them, however, are red and have a smooth, though nonsymmetrical, shape.

Hubble subdivided these three classes into finer groups according to subtle differences in shape, as described in detail below. Other classification schemes similar to Hubble's follow this pattern but subdivide the galaxies differently. A notable example of one such system is that of Gerard de Vaucouleurs. This scheme, which has evolved considerably since its inception in 1959, includes a large number of codes for indicating different kinds of morphological characteristics visible in the images of galaxies. The major Hubble galaxy classes form the framework of de Vaucouleurs's scheme, and its subdivision includes different families, varieties, and stages, as shown in Table 1. Examples of the de Vaucouleurs classification scheme are for galaxy M33, the Triangulum Nebula, which is classified as SA(s)cd, and the nearby small galaxy NGC 6822, classified as IB(s)m. An entirely different kind of classification scheme is the luminosity classification developed in 1960 by Sidney van den Bergh. Based on morphological considerations, luminosity classes are assigned to individual galaxies within the Hubble classes. Those that are the most luminous are given a luminosity class of I, and the intrinsically faintest members of a class are assigned a V or VI, recalling the general approach of the luminosity class scheme used for stellar spectra . Thus a very luminous galaxy with open, resolved arms would be an Sc I galaxy, while a somewhat intrinsically fainter object with the same basic structure would be an Sc II or Sc III galaxy. To assign a luminosity class, a galaxy's image has to be compared with a set of standard images of galaxies for which distances are known and for which luminosity classes have been established by van den Bergh. Classification schemes based on criteria other than optical appearance have been proposed. There is, for example, the Morgan scheme (proposed by W.W. Morgan), which combines information on the spectrum of a galaxy with its general shape. Here, a class is coded with a letter that indicates the spectral type of the galaxy in the blue (either as measured or as determined from the galaxy's bulge morphology, which correlates with the spectral type): e.g., a, af, f, fg, g, gk, k, for increasing dominance by cooler stars. The code then includes a capital letter to indicate general morphology--e.g., E, S, or I--in accordance with Hubble's general classes. This is followed by a number that indicates the overall optical shape of the image, with 0 representing a circular image and a 10 (never actually realized) standing for a linear, infinitely thin image. An example is the galaxy M31, the Andromeda Nebula, which is classified as kS5 in the Morgan system.

Systems that separate galaxies according to the character of their radio structure and the strength of their radio emissions also have been devised. For example, radio galaxies can be classified according to the following scheme: g: galaxies with normal radio fluxes. R: galaxies with strong radio emission. Many have distorted morphology, with evidence of explosive events or interactions with companions. cD: galaxies with abnormally large, distended shapes, always found in the central areas of galaxy clusters and hypothesized to consist of merged galaxies. S: Seyfert galaxies, originally recognized by the American astronomer Carl K. Seyfert from optical spectra. These objects have very bright nuclei with strong emission lines of hydrogen and other common elements, showing velocities of hundreds or thousands of kilometres per second. Most are radio sources. N: galaxies with small, very bright nuclei and strong radio emission, probably similar to Seyfert galaxies but more distant. Q: quasars, small, extremely luminous objects, many of which are strong radio sources. Quasars apparently are related to Seyfert and N galaxies but have such bright nuclei that the underlying galaxy can be detected only with great difficulty. Although such schemes are sometimes used for special purposes, including, for example, certain kinds of statistical studies, the general scheme of Hubble in its updated form is the one most commonly used and so will be described in detail in the following section.

CLASSES OF GALAXIES
In The Hubble Atlas of Galaxies (1961), Allan R. Sandage drew on Hubble's notes and his own research on galaxy morphology to revise the Hubble classification scheme. Some of the features of this revised scheme are subject to argument because of the findings of very recent research, but its general features, especially the coding of types, remain viable. A description of the classes as defined by Sandage is given here, along with observations concerning needed refinements of some of the details.

Elliptical galaxies. M104, Sombrero These systems exhibit certain characteristic properties. They have Galaxy in complete rotational symmetry; i.e., they are figures of revolution Virgo, an elliptical galaxy surrounded by a disc of dust and gas.

with two equal principal axes. They have a third smaller axis that is the presumed axis of rotation. The surface brightness of ellipticals at optical wavelengths decreases monotonically outward from a maximum value at the centre, following a common mathematical law of the form:

where I is the intensity of the light, Io is the central intensity, r is the radius, and a is a scale factor. The isophotal contours exhibited by an elliptical system are similar ellipses with a common orientation, each centred on its nucleus. No galaxy of this type is flatter than b/a = 0.3, with b and a the minor and major axes of the elliptical image, respectively. Ellipticals contain neither interstellar dust nor bright stars of spectral types 0 and B. Many, however, contain evidence of the presence of low-density gas in their nuclear regions. Ellipticals are red in colour, and their spectra indicate that their light comes mostly from old stars, especially evolved red giants. Subclasses of elliptical galaxies are defined by their apparent shape, which is of course not necessarily their three-dimensional shape. The designation is En, where n is an integer defined by

A perfectly circular image will be an E0 galaxy, while a flatter object might be an E7 galaxy. (As explained above, elliptical galaxies are never flatter than this, so there are no E8, E9, or E10 galaxies.) Although the above-cited criteria are generally accepted, current highquality measurements have shown that some significant deviations exist. Most elliptical galaxies do not, for instance, exactly fit the intensity law formulated by Hubble; deviations are evident in their innermost parts and in their faint outer parts. Furthermore, many elliptical galaxies have slowly varying ellipticity, with the images being more circular in the central regions than in the outer parts. The major axes sometimes do not line up either, their position angles varying outward. Finally, astronomers have found that a few ellipticals do in fact have small numbers of luminous 0 and B stars as well as dust lanes.

Spiral galaxies.
Spirals are characterized by circular symmetry, a bright nucleus surrounded by a thin outer disk, and a superimposed spiral structure. They are divided into two parallel classes: normal

Figure 1: Hubble's system of classification for galaxies (see text).

spirals and barred spirals. The normal spirals have arms that emanate from the nucleus, while barred spirals have a bright linear feature called a bar straddling the nucleus, with the arms unwinding from the ends of the bar. The normal spirals are designated "S" and the barred varieties "SB." Each of these classes is subclassified into three types according to the size of the nucleus and the degree to which the spiral arms are coiled. The three types are denoted with the lowercase letters "a," "b," and "c." There also exist galaxies that are intermediate between ellipticals and spirals. Such systems have the disk shape characteristic of the latter but no spiral arms. These intermediate forms bear the designation "S0" (Figure 1).

S0 galaxies.
These systems exhibit some of the properties of both the ellipticals and the spirals and seem to be a bridge between these two more common galaxy types. Hubble introduced the S0 class long after his original classification scheme had been universally adopted largely because he noticed the dearth of highly flattened objects that otherwise had the properties of elliptical galaxies. Sandage's elaboration of the S0 class yielded the characteristics described here.

S0 galaxies have a bright nucleus that is surrounded by a smooth, featureless bulge and a faint outer envelope. They are thin; statistical studies of the ratio of the apparent axes (seen projected onto the sky) indicate that they have intrinsic ratios of minor to major axes in the range 0.1 to 0.3. Their structure does not generally follow the luminosity law of elliptical galaxies, but it has a form more like that for spiral galaxies. Some S0 systems have a hint of structure in the envelope, either faintly discernible armlike discontinuities or narrow absorption lanes produced by interstellar dust. Several S0 galaxies are otherwise peculiar, and it is difficult to classify them with certainty. They can be thought of as peculiar Irr galaxies (i.e., Irr II galaxies [see below]) or simply as some of the 1 or 2 percent of galaxies that do not fit easily into the Hubble scheme. Among these are such galaxies as NGC 4753 that has irregular dust lanes across its image and NGC 128 that has a double, almost rectangular, bulge around a central nucleus. Another type of peculiar S0 is found in NGC 2685. This nebula in the constellation Ursa Major has an apparently edgeon disk galaxy at its centre, with surrounding hoops of gas, dust, and stars arranged in a plane that is at right angles to the apparent plane of the central object.

Sa galaxies.
These normal spirals have narrow, tightly wound arms, which usually are visible due to the presence of interstellar dust and in many cases bright stars as well. Most of them have a large, amorphous bulge in the centre, but there are some that violate this criterion, having a small nucleus around which is arranged an amorphous disk with superimposed faint arms. NGC 1302 is an example of the

normal type of Sa galaxy, while NGC 4866 is representative of one with a small nucleus and arms consisting of thin dust lanes on a smooth disk.

Sb galaxies.
This intermediate type of spiral typically has a medium-sized nucleus. Its arms are more widely spread than those of the Sa variety and appear less smooth. They contain stars, star clouds, and interstellar gas and dust. Sb galaxies show wide dispersions in details in terms of their shape. Hubble and Sandage observed, for example, that in certain Sb galaxies the arms emerge at the nucleus, which is often quite small. Other members of this subclass have arms that begin tangent to a bright, nearly circular ring, while still others reveal a small, bright spiral pattern inset into the nuclear bulge. In any of these cases, the spiral arms may be set at different pitch angles. (A pitch angle is defined as the angle between an arm and a circle centred on the nucleus and intersecting the arm.)

Hubble and Sandage noted further deviations from the standard shape established for Sb galaxies. A few systems exhibit a chaotic dust pattern superimposed upon the tightly wound spiral arms. Some have smooth, thick arms of low surface brightness, frequently bounded on their inner edges with dust lanes. Finally, there are those with a large, smooth nuclear bulge from which the arms emanate, flowing outward tangent to the bulge and forming short arm segments. This is the most familiar type of Sb galaxy and is best exemplified by the giant Andromeda Galaxy. Many of these variations in shape remain unexplained. Theoretical models of spiral galaxies based on a number of different premises can reproduce the basic Sb galaxy shape (see below The Milky Way Galaxy), but many of the deviations noted above are somewhat mysterious in origin and must await more detailed and realistic modeling of galactic dynamics.

Sc galaxies.
These galaxies characteristically have a very small nucleus and multiple spiral arms that are open, with relatively large pitch angles. The arms, moreover, are lumpy, containing as they do numerous irregularly distributed star clouds, stellar associations, star clusters, and gas clouds known as emission nebulas.

As in the case of Sb galaxies, there are several recognizable subtypes among the Sc systems. Sandage has cited six subdivisions: (1) galaxies, such as the Whirlpool Nebula (M51), that have thin, branched arms that wind outward from a tiny nucleus, usually extending out about 180 before branching into multiple segments; (2) systems with multiple arms that start tangent to a bright ring centred on the nucleus; (3) those with arms that are poorly defined and that span the entire image of the galaxy; (4) those with a spiral pattern that cannot easily be traced and that are multiple and punctuated with chaotic dust lanes; (5) those with

thick, loose arms that are not well defined--e.g., the nearby galaxy M33, the Triangulum Nebula; and (6) transition types, which are almost so lacking in order that they could be considered irregular galaxies. Some classification schemes, such as that of de Vaucouleurs, give the last of the above-cited subtypes a class of its own, type Sd. It also has been found that some of the variations noted here for Sc galaxies are related to total luminosity. Galaxies of the fifth subtype, in particular, tend to be intrinsically faint, while those of the first subtype are among the most luminous spirals known. This correlation is part of the justification for the luminosity classification discussed earlier.

SB galaxies.
The luminosities, dimensions, spectra, and distributions of the barred spirals tend to be indistinguishable from those of normal spirals. The subclasses of SB systems exist in parallel sequence to those of the latter.

There are SB0 galaxies that feature a large nuclear bulge surrounded by a disklike envelope across which runs a luminous, featureless bar. Some SB0 systems have short bars, while others have bars that extend across the entire visible image. Occasionally there is a ringlike feature external to the bar. SBa galaxies have bright, fairly large nuclear bulges and tightly wound, smooth spiral arms that emerge from the ends of the bar or from a circular ring external to the bar. SBb systems have a smooth bar as well as relatively smooth and continuous arms. In some galaxies of this type, the arms start at or near the ends of the bar, with conspicuous dust lanes along the inside of the bar that can be traced right up to the nucleus. Others have arms that start tangent to a ring external to the bar. In SBc galaxies, both the arms and the bar are highly resolved into star clouds and stellar associations. The arms are open in form and can start either at the ends of the bar or tangent to a ring.

Irregular galaxies.
Hubble recognized two types of irregular galaxies, Irr I and Irr II. The Irr I type is the most common of the irregular systems, and it seems to fall naturally on an extension of the spiral classes, beyond Sc, into galaxies with no discernible spiral structure. They are blue, highly resolved, and have little or no nucleus. The Irr II systems are rare objects. They include various kinds of chaotic galaxies for which there apparently are many different explanations. Table 2 compares various subgroups of this rather confusing assembly of objects.

Some irregular galaxies, like spirals, are barred. They have a nearly central bar structure dominating an otherwise chaotic arrangement of material. The Large Magellanic Cloud is a well-known example. The Hubble system does not normally recognize this as a subtype, though the

de Vaucouleurs classification scheme includes it and its related types as Im and IB (see Table 1).

The Hubble Distance - Redshift Relationship

When Hubble plotted the redshift vs. the distance of the galaxies, he found a surprising relation: more distant galaxies are moving faster away from us. Hubble concluded that the fainter and smaller the galaxy, the more distant it is, and the faster it is moving away from us, or that the recessional velocity of a galaxy is proportional to its distance from us: v = Ho d, where v is the galaxy's velocity (in km/sec), d is the distance to the galaxy (in megaparsecs; 1 Mpc = 1 million parsecs), and Ho proportionality constant, called "The Hubble constant".

Hubble's Law states that the galaxy's recession speed = Ho * distance, where Ho is known as the Hubble constant and is a measure of the slope of the line through the distance versus recession velocity data. The line goes through the origin (0,0) because that represents our home position (zero distance) and we are not moving away from ourselves (zero speed). To determine a galaxy's distance, we must rely on indirect methods. For instance, one assumption used by Hubble, and other early 20th century astronomers, is to assume all galaxies of the same type are the same physical size, no matter where they are. This is known as "the standard ruler" assumption. To determine the distance to a galaxy one would only need to measure its apparent (angular) size, and use the small angle equation: a = s / d, where a is the measured angular size (in radians!), s is the galaxy's true size (diameter), and d is the distance to the galaxy. In order to precisely determine the value of Ho, we must determine the velocities and distances to many galaxies. Hubble's law has been confirmed by subsequent research and provides the cornerstone of modern relativistic cosmological theories of our expanding

universe. In 1963 astronomers discovered cosmic objects known as quasars that exhibit larger redshifts than any of the remotest galaxies previously observed. The extremely large redshifts of various quasars suggest that they are moving away from the Earth at tremendous velocities (i.e., approximately 90 percent the speed of light) and thereby constitute some of the most distant objects in the universe. Historical Note: It is not common for any other astronomers to be mentioned along with Edwin Hubble as being responsible for figuring out how the distance to a galaxy is related to its recession velocity. However, Hubble did not work alone and many other astronomers deserve credit for establishing the distance--redshift relationship.
The trick to determining the distance to a galaxy is to find in that galaxy a standard candle, an object that has a known luminosity. If such a class of objects can be found, and if it can be calibrated, preferably by measuring the parallax of one such object within our own galaxy, we can calculate the distance to the galaxy by measuring the brightness of the object and applying the inverse square law. The primary standard candle in astronomy is the Cepheid variable, a star with a luminosity that is set by its pulsation period. A second important standard candle is the type 1a supernova, which has a peak luminosity that can be used as a standard candle. Because type 1a supernovae are rare in any given galaxy, their use is limited to testing theories of cosmology and calibrating a third important distance measurethe cosmological redshift. Very distant galaxies are moving away from us with a velocity that is proportional to distance. The redshift of the light from these galaxies is therefore a measure of their distance. This distance measure, however, can only be calibrated against standard candle distance indicators.

Cepheid Variables
The best standard candle for determining the distance to the nearby galaxies is the Cepheid variable star. These are bright and reasonably common, with strong identifying signatures, so their observation in other galaxies is not too difficult. Many of those observed in our own Galaxy have measured parallaxes, so this standard candle is calibrated to physical units; 273 Cepheid type variables having been observed by the Hipparcos satellite. The Cepheid variable has a luminosity that is a function of period alone. If you observe one and determine its period of variability, then you can assign it the luminosity of nearby Cepheids with similar periods. By measuring the brightness of the Cepheid in the distant galaxy, one can derive the distance using the inverse square law; in terms of absolute magnitude M and apparent magnitude m,1 the distance is given by R = 101 + 0.2( m - M ) parsecs.

Type 1a Supernovae

The standard candle of choice in cosmological studies is the type 1a supernova. It is as bright as any event in the universe, so it can be seen in the most distant galaxies. A supernova is brighter than its host galaxy, and on many occasions, the host galaxy of an observed type 1a supernova is too dim to observe. The characteristic of type 1a supernovae that make them standard candles is that low redshift supernovae with similar durations and spectra have similar peak luminosities. Those observed at low redshift can be calibrated with Cepheid variables. The basic theory behind this type of supernova is that we are seeing the aftermath of the explosion of a carbon-oxygen thermonuclear bomb. The progenitor, a degenerate dwarf (white dwarf), is pushed over the Chandrasekhar mass limit; as the star starts to collapse, the oxygen and carbon in the star undergo nuclear fusion, releasing the energy in the supernova. Theory, however, cannot provide the observed behavior from first principles, so it is unable to show whether the standard candle behavior, which is seen in nearby supernovae, persists at large redshift, where the universe is younger, and therefore somewhat different from the current universe in its galactic structure and chemical composition. If changing conditions within the universe make the luminosity of a type 1a supernova change with redshift, then the distance that is derived will be systematically too large or too small. This has a direct bearing on the application of this standard candle to cosmology. Beyond the question of whether conditions in the early universe affect the luminosity of a type 1a supernova, a second problem besets this standard candle that severely limits its use: supernovae are rare in any given galaxy. They therefore cannot be used to determine the distance to any galaxy that we may be interested in. Their only uses are in calibrating other distance measures, such as the cosmological redshift, in testing cosmological theories, and in studying the surrounding of these supernovae. Current studies with these standard candles are examining the expansion of the universe at redshifts between z = 0.01 and 1.

Cosmological Redshift
The light from distant galaxies is shifted to lower frequencies. This observed behavior is well established, and is the motivation behind the theory that the universe is expanding: the redshift is interpreted as a consequence of the galaxies moving away. Independent of theory, the magnitude of the shift to lower energies, which is called a redshift, is a measure of the distance to a galaxy that can be calibrated through comparison to standard candle measures of distance. The standard way of expressing the redshift of a galaxy in astronomy is through the variable z, which is defined by the equation ob =emit /( 1 +

z ),

where obs is the observed frequency of an emission line, and emit is the emitted frequency of the emission line.
For z much less than unity, the distance is found to be proportional to z; This relationship is given by the Hubble constant H0, which is the ratio of the implied velocity to the distance. The distance is then related to the redshift by d = c z/H0, where c is the speed of light. The value of the Hubble constant that is determined using type 1a supernovae as standard candles is H0 = 65 km s-1 Mpc-1 (Mpc stands for megaparsec), a value that is believed correct to 10%. From this we see that objects with a redshift of 0.1 are about 4.6 gigaparsecs way. For redshifts approaching unity, the dependence of distance on redshift is set by the precise nature of our cosmology. The distance versus the redshift at large redshift is an active field of research that impacts our theories for the evolution of the universe.
1

The magnitude scale is a logarithmic scale of brightness. As the magnitude of a star increases, its brightness decreases. The apparent magnitude m is the brightness of a star measured at Earth, and it depends both on the luminosity and the distance of the star. The absolute magnitude M is the brightness of a star that is placed 10 parsecs from Earth. Normally one must state the frequency range over which the measurement is made. The Sun has an absolute visual magnitude of 4.83, and the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.4 and an apparent magnitude of -4.6.