Elliptical galaxy

The giant elliptical galaxy ESO 325-G004

An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flat and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars. They can be the result of two galaxies colliding.

Elliptical galaxies are one of the three main classes of galaxy originally described by American astronomer Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work The Realm of the Nebulae, along with spiral and lenticular galaxies. Elliptical galaxies are (together with lenticular galaxies) also called "early-type" galaxies (ETG), due to their location in the Hubble sequence.

Most elliptical galaxies are composed of older, low-mass stars, with a sparse interstellar medium and minimal star formation activity. They are surrounded by large numbers of globular clusters. Elliptical galaxies are believed to make up approximately 10–15% of galaxies in the local Universe but are not the dominant type of galaxy in the universe overall.^{[citation needed]} They are preferentially found close to the centers of galaxy clusters and are less common in the early Universe.

General characteristics

Elliptical galaxies are characterized by several properties that make them distinct from other classes of galaxy.They are basically huge squished balls of old stars,starved of star-making gases.They are ball- or egg-shaped.The smallest elliptical galaxy humans know of is about one-tenth the size of our Milky Way.The motion of stars in elliptical galaxies is predominantly radial, unlike the disks of spiral galaxies, which are dominated by rotation. Furthermore, there is very little interstellar matter (neither gas nor dust), which results in low rates of star formation, few open star clusters, and few young stars; rather elliptical galaxies are dominated by old stellar populations, giving them red colours. Large elliptical galaxies typically have an extensive system of globular clusters.

The dynamical properties of elliptical galaxies and the bulges of disk galaxies are similar, suggesting that they are formed by the same physical processes, although this remains controversial. The luminosity profiles of both elliptical galaxies and bulges are well fit by Sersic's law.

Elliptical galaxies are preferentially found in galaxy clusters and in compact groups of galaxies.

Star formation

This traditional portrait of elliptical galaxies paints them as galaxies where star formation has finished after the initial burst, leaving them to shine with only their aging stars. Very little star formation is thought to occur, because of the lack of gas, dust, and space. In general, they appear yellow-red, which is in contrast to the distinct blue tinge of a typical spiral galaxy, a colour emanating largely from the young, hot stars in its spiral arms.

Sizes and shapes

The brilliant central object is a supergiant elliptical galaxy, the dominant member of a galaxy cluster with the name MACSJ1423.8+2404.

Elliptical galaxies vary greatly in both size and mass, from as little as a tenth of a kiloparsec to over 100 kiloparsecs, and from 10⁷ to nearly 10¹³ solar masses.^{[citation needed]} This range is much broader for this galaxy type than for any other. The smallest, the Dwarf elliptical galaxies, may be no larger than a typical globular cluster, but contain a considerable amount of dark matter not present in clusters. Most of these small galaxies may not be related to other ellipticals.

The Hubble classification of elliptical galaxies contains an integer that describes how elongated the galaxy image is. The classification is determined by the ratio of the major (a) to the minor (b) axes of the galaxy's isophotes:

$10 \times \left(1 - \frac{b}{a}\right)$

Thus for a spherical galaxy with a equal to b, the number is 0, and the Hubble type is E0. The limit is about E7, which is believed to be due to a bending instability that causes flatter galaxies to puff up. The most common shape is close to E3. Hubble recognized that his shape classification depends both on the intrinsic shape of the galaxy, as well as the angle with which the galaxy is observed. Hence, some galaxies with Hubble type E0 are actually elongated.

There are two physical types of ellipticals; the "boxy" giant ellipticals, whose shapes result from random motion which is greater in some directions than in others (anisotropic random motion), and the "disky" normal and low luminosity ellipticals, which have nearly isotropic random velocities but are flattened due to rotation.

Dwarf elliptical galaxies have properties that are intermediate between those of regular elliptical galaxies and globular clusters. Dwarf spheroidal galaxies appear to be a distinct class: their properties are more similar to those of irregulars and late spiral-type galaxies.

At the large end of the elliptical spectrum, there is further division, beyond Hubble classification. Beyond gE giant ellipticals, lies D-galaxies and cD-galaxies. These are similar to their smaller brethren, but more diffuse, with larger haloes. Some even appear more akin to lenticular galaxies.

Evolution

Current thinking is that an elliptical galaxy may be the result of a long process where two galaxies of comparable mass, of any type, collide and merge.^{[citation needed]}

Such major galactic mergers are thought to have been common at early times, but may carry on more infrequently today. Minor galactic mergers involve two galaxies of very different masses, and are not limited to giant ellipticals. For example, our own Milky Way galaxy is known to be "ingesting" a couple of small galaxies right now.^{[citation needed]} The Milky Way galaxy, is also, depending upon an unknown tangential component, on a collision course in 4-5 billion years with the Andromeda Galaxy. It has been theorized that an elliptical galaxy will result from a merger of the two spirals.

Every bright elliptical galaxy is believed to contain a supermassive black hole at its center. The mass of the black hole is tightly correlated with the mass of the galaxy, via the M-sigma relation. It is believed that black holes may play an important role in limiting the growth of elliptical galaxies in the early universe by inhibiting star formation.^{[citation needed]}

Examples

SDSS J162702.56+432833.9 is an elliptical galaxy.

• M32
• M49
• M59
• M60 (NGC 4649)
• M87 (NGC 4486)
• M89
• M105 (NGC 3379)
• Maffei 1, the closest giant elliptical galaxy.
• Centaurus A (NGC 5128), a radio galaxy, elliptical/lenticular disputed.

See also

• Firehose instability
• Galaxy color-magnitude diagram
• Galaxy morphological classification
• Hubble sequence
• Lenticular galaxy
• M-sigma relation
• Osipkov-Merritt model
• Sersic profile

External links

• Elliptical Galaxies, SEDS Messier pages
• Elliptical Galaxies