Ce portail offre des connaissances de base sur le thème de l'astronomie et présente les travaux et coopérations de recherche actuels en Suisse.

Immagine: ESO

Galaxies

Galaxies in many different shapes
Immagine: 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?

De nombreuses galaxies n'ont pas de vrai nom, mais plutôt un numéro de catalogue.

Voici deux catalogues importants :

New General Catalogue
→ NGC
Messier Catalogue
→ M
  1. Voie lactée (galaxie d'origine)
  2. Sagittarius
  3. Ursa Major II
  4. Coma Berenices
  5. Grand nuage de Magellan
  6. Petit nuage de Magellan
  7. Ursa Minor
  8. Boötes
  9. Draco
  10. Sculpteur
  1. NGC 55
  2. NGC 205
  3. M32
  4. M31
  5. NGC 247
  6. NGC 253
  7. Petit nuage maggélien
  8. NGC 300
  9. M33
  10. Fornax