Tag: massive stars

Why do Galaxies look like that?

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Why should a galaxy have bluish spiral arms dotted with red patches and dark lanes.  Why should it have a central region that is yellow and spherical rather than flat? Why are they flat to begin with? Because Galaxies are so huge, and made from hundreds of Billions of stars that change over the course of their lives, a galaxy shows the entire life cycle of a star in its own structure. Stars are born along spiral arms, where most of the thick dust and gas clouds are concentrated.  The dark dust lanes of spiral arms condense to form stars,...

Andromeda Unlocks Secrets of Galaxies

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Remember that amazing high-def photo of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, from Hubble a few months back? It was able to separate the light from the galaxy into the millions of visible stars that populate its spiral arms.  This image is used for far more than the wow factor of seeing another galaxy up close.  It allows us to study the entire galaxy and gain insights into the lives of spiral galaxies beyond our own, how they formed, how they evolve, and maybe even how they will eventually die. By looking at the spiral arms of M31, where the youngest and...