An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A galaxy that belongs to the spiral class but is significantly smaller.

→ dwarf; → spiral; → galaxy.

A → starburst galaxy that is a → dwarf galaxy. Examples include: the → dwarf irregular galaxy IC 10, the compact dwarf irregular Henize 2-10, and the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5253.

→ dwarf; → starburst; → galaxy.

In the → Hubble classification, galaxies on the left part of the → Hubble sequence. Early-type galaxies tend to have redder colors, higher average surface brightnesses, and lower → neutral hydrogen content than → late-type galaxies. This terminology is based on the obsolete and erroneous idea that → elliptical and → lenticular galaxies might be evolutionary precursors to → spiral and → barred spiral galaxies.

→ early; → type; → galaxy.

A → spiral galaxy oriented edge-on to our view. → face-on galaxy.

→ edge; on, from O.E. on, variant of an "in, on, into" (cf. Du. aan; Ger. an; Goth. ana "on, upon"), from PIE base *ano "on" (cf. Av. ana "on;" Gk. ana "on, upon;" L. an-); → galaxy.

Kahkašân, → galaxy; pahlunemâ "showing the side," from pahlu, → side, + nemâ, from nemudan "to show, display," → display.

A galaxy whose structure is smooth without spiral arms and ellipsoidal in shape. Ellipticals are redder than spirals of similar mass. Giant ellipticals contain over 10¹² solar masses, whereas dwarf ellipticals have masses as low as 10⁷ solar masses.

→ elliptical; → galaxy.

A → spiral galaxy oriented such that it is viewed from above or below. → edge-on galaxy.

→ face; → on-; → galaxy.

A galaxy that lies in the direction of a → cluster of galaxies, but is not a member of the cluster. Field galaxies are rare, less than about 5% of all galaxies.

→ field; → galaxy.

A galaxy that has short segments of patchy spiral structure so that the disk appears like the fleece of a sheep. Examples: NGC 2841 and NGC 5055.

From L. floccus "flock of wool" + -ulent; → spiral galaxy.

Kahkešân, → galaxy; mârpic, → spiral; pašmin "woolly, woollen," from pašm "wool" (Mid.Pers. pašm "wool;" Av. pašna- "eyelash, eyelid;" cp. Skt. páksman- "eyelashes;" Gk. pekos "wool, fleece," pek(t)ein "to comb, pluck;" Lith. pešti "to pluck;" O.N. fax "mane").

1) Generally, a large body of → gas, → dust, and → stars held together by their mutual → gravitational attraction and ranging in mass from about 10⁶ to 10¹³ Msun. If a galaxy also contains → dark matter its mass will be much larger. Galaxies are grouped into three main categories: → spiral galaxy, → elliptical galaxy, and → irregular galaxy (→ Hubble classification).
2) With capital G, the galaxy to which our Sun belongs; → Milky Way galaxy.
See also:
→ active galaxy, → Andromeda galaxy, → barred spiral galaxy, → biased galaxy formation, → binary galaxy, → blue compact dwarf galaxy, → broad-line radio galaxy, → bulge of a galaxy, → Cartwheel Galaxy, → compact galaxy, → core-halo galaxy, → disk galaxy, → dwarf elliptical galaxy, → dwarf galaxy, → dwarf irregular galaxy, → dwarf spheroidal galaxy, → early-type galaxy, → edge-on galaxy, → face-on galaxy, → field galaxy, → flocculent spiral galaxy, → galaxy bimodality, → galaxy cluster, → galaxy formation, → galaxy harassment, → galaxy main sequence, → gas-poor galaxy, → gas-rich galaxy, → grand design spiral galaxy, → green pea galaxy, → halo of galaxy, → halo of the Galaxy, → Haro galaxy, → host galaxy, → hypergalaxy, → infrared galaxy, → Irr I galaxy, → Irr II galaxy, → isolated galaxy, → late-type galaxy, → lensing galaxy, → lenticular galaxy, → low surface brightness galaxy, → luminous infrared galaxy, → Lyman break galaxy, → Markarian galaxy, → metagalaxy, → metal-deficient galaxy, → metal-poor galaxy, → parent galaxy, → passive galaxy, → passively evolving galaxy, → peculiar galaxy, → primordial galaxy, → progenitor galaxy, → protogalaxy, → radio galaxy, → receding galaxy, → retired galaxy, → ring galaxy, → Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, → Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy, → satellite galaxy, → Sculptor Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, → Seyfert galaxy, → shell galaxy, → Sombrero galaxy, → starburst galaxy, → strong arm spiral galaxy, → submillimeter galaxy, → superthin galaxy, → superwind galaxy, → tidal dwarf galaxy, → Triangulum galaxy, → ultraluminous infrared galaxy, → violent galaxy, → weak arm spiral galaxy, → Whirlpool galaxy, → Wolf-Rayet galaxy.

From L.L. galaxias "Milky Way," from Gk. galaxis (adj.), from gala (genitive galaktos) "milk."
In Gk. mythology, Jupiter, hoping to immortalize his infant son Hercules (who was born to a mortal woman), placed the baby on Hera's breast. Her milk spilled up, forming the Milky Way. A painting by Italian artist Jacopo Tintoretto (c. 1518-1594), called "The Origin of the Milky Way," depicts the legend describing how the Milky Way was formed.

Kahkešân, short for (râh-e) kahkešân literally "the (path of the) chaff-draggers" or "trail of chaff," from kah, kâh "chaff, straw, hay" (Mid.Pers. kâh "chaff, straw;" cf. Pali kattha- "a piece of wood;" Skt. kastha- "stick;" Gk. klados "twig;" O.Ir. caill "wood;" Ger. Holz "wood;" E. holt; PIE *kldo-) + kešân pr.p. of kešidan/kašidan "to carry, draw, protract, trail, drag" (Mid.Pers. kešidan "to draw, pull;" Av. karš- "to draw; to plow," karša- "furrow;" cf. Skt. kars-, kársati "to pull, drag, plow;" Gk. pelo, pelomai "to move, to bustle;" PIE base k^wels- "to plow"). The term (râh-e) kahkešân may be a popular corruption of Mid. Pers. (râh-i) Kâwôsân "the path of Kâwos" referring to the Persian mythological king Kay Kâwôs, who built an eagle-propelled throne to fly to China, as recounted in the Dênkard and the Shâhnâmé.

The division of galaxies into a "red sequence" and a "blue sequence" in the → color-magnitude diagrams of galaxies involving large statistical surveys. In both sequences, redder galaxies tend to be brighter. The blue sequence is truncated at the red magnitude ~ -22, while the red sequence extends to brighter magnitudes. The division between the two classes of galaxies is associated with a critical stellar mass ~ 3 × 10¹⁰ Msun. Galaxies below the critical mass are typically blue, star forming spirals and reside in the field. Galaxies above the critical mass are dominated by red spheroids of old stars and live in dense environments (Kauffmann et al, 2003, MNRAS 341, 33 & 54).

→ galaxy; → bimodality.

A → spheroidal region at the center of a → spiral galaxy which mostly contains → old stars. Galactic bulges are generally classified into two types: → classical bulges and → pseudo-bulges.

→ galaxy; → bulge.

An aggregation of galaxies, made up of a few to a few thousand members, which may or may not be held together by its own gravity. Same as → cluster of galaxies.

→ galaxy; → cluster.

The study dealing with the processes that gave rise to galaxies in a remarkably → early Universe. See also → structure formation, → protogalaxy

→ galaxy; → formation.

Frequent, high speed galaxy → encounters within → galaxy clusters. Harassment can disturb the morphologies of the galaxies involved, often inducing a new → burst of star formation. Asymmetrical galaxies, → warps, → bars, and → tidal tails can all be produced through galaxy harassment.

→ galaxy; → harassment.

The dominant member of the → Virgo cluster of galaxies, which contains some 2,000 galaxies. Also known as NGC 4486, it has an → apparent visual magnitude 9.6. Discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier, this → elliptical galaxy is located 55 million → light-years away from Earth in the constellation → Virgo. M87 is the home of several thousand billion stars, a → supermassive black hole (SMBH) and a family of roughly 15,000 → globular clusters. For comparison, our → Milky Way galaxy contains only a few hundred billion stars and about 150 globular clusters. M87 is characterized by a prominent kiloparsec scale → relativistic jet emitted by the central SMBH. As gaseous material from the center of the galaxy → accretes onto the black hole, the energy released produces a stream of subatomic particles that are accelerated to velocities near the → speed of light.

→ galaxy; → Messier catalog.

A scaling relation between the → star formation rate (SFR) in galaxies and the total stellar mass (M_*) of the galaxies. This relation, colloquially called the "galaxy main sequence," extends over several orders of magnitudes in M_* and out to → high redshifts, with a modest scatter of ~ 0.3 dex which includes both intrinsic scatter and measurement uncertainties. The existence of such tight scatter at all observed epochs suggests that most galaxies assembled their stellar mass fairly steadily rather than predominantly in → starburst episodes, implying that → mergers have a sub-dominant contribution to the global star formation history (Wuyts et al., 2011 ApJ 742, 96).

→ galaxy; → main; → sequence.

A galaxy which has a relatively low gas content. More specifically, a galaxy whose → baryonic matter is chiefly in the form of stars and has very little → interstellar matter.

→ gas; → poor; → galaxy.

A galaxy, usually young, which has a relatively important gas content.

→ gas; → rich; → galaxy.

A galaxy with prominent → arms that are clearly attached to the central → bulge or → bar spiraling continuously outward until they reach the edge of the visible disk. Some examples are: → Whirlpool galaxy (M51), M74 (NGC 628), and NGC 2997.

M.E. graunt, from O.Fr. grant, grand, from L. grandis "big, great," also "full-grown;" design, from M.E. designen, from L. designare "mark out, designate, appoint," from → de- "out" + signare "to mark," from signum→ sign; → spiral; → galaxy.

Kahkešân, → galaxy; mârpic→ spiral; farsâz, → perfect.

A member of a class of galaxies of relatively small size (→ compact galaxy) having very strong → emission lines especially the → [O III] doublet and an unusually large → equivalent width of up to 1000 Å. They were first noted because of their peculiar bright green color and small size, unresolved in → Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging. Green Peas are similar to high-→ redshift  → Lyman alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs) in many respects (small sizes, low → stellar masses, 10^8-10 → solar masses (Msun), low metallicities for their stellar masses, high → specific star formation rates (sSFR), and large [O III] λ5007/[O II]λ3727 ratios. Green Peas are relatively luminous and massive galaxies compared to the faint-end → dwarf starburst galaxies and LAEs (See Yang et al, 2017, arxiv/1706.02819, and references therein).

Such called because of their appearance and green color (mainly due to very strong optical emission line [O III] 5007 Å) in composite images; → green; → pea; → galaxy.