1. GALAXIES? So you want to know more about

2. Types of Galaxies

3. Spiral galaxies are characterized by a distinct flattened spiral disk with a bright center called the nucleus. Our own Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.Milky Way Click here to fly through a spiral galaxy! Click here to fly through a spiral galaxy!

4. A barred spiral galaxy is very similar to a spiral with one important difference. The arms spiral out from a straight bar of stars instead of from the center. About one third of all spiral galaxies are barred spiral in shape.barred spiral

5. Elliptical galaxies Elliptical galaxies vary in shape from completely round to extremely elongated ovals. Unlike spiral galaxies, they have no bright nucleus at their center.

6. A fourth type of galaxy is known as the irregular galaxy. These galaxies have no distinguishing shape or structure.irregular galaxy

7. Nearly every object in this image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is a galaxy each containing 10s of billions to trillions of stars. The large grouping of galaxies filling the center of this image is the most massive galaxy cluster known, and lies 2 billion light years away. Most of the small blurs of light are galaxies even more distant.