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spiral galaxy |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.04 sec. |
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spiral galaxy [′spī·rəl ′gal·ik·sē] (astronomy) A type of galaxy classified on the basis of appearance of its photographic image; this type includes two main groups: normal spirals with circular symmetry of the nucleus and of the spiral arms, and barred spirals in which the dominant form is a luminous bar crossing the nucleus with spiral arms starting at the ends of the bar or tangent to a luminous rim on which the bar terminates. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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Hubble Space Telescope images have shown that NGC 1316, an elliptical galaxy lying 80 million light-years from Earth, has swallowed spiral galaxies, smashing together gas clouds and generating new massive stars. The mysterious "Fibonacci sequence" is set out numerically, along with stunning examples of its occurrence in nature - from nautilus shells to spiral galaxies. A new study shows that the two spiral galaxies evolved in a highly similar fashion over the first 3 billion to 4 billion years of their histories. |
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