Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T09:26:20.686Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Large-scale structure of spiral nebulae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

W. Baade*
Affiliation:
Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, U.S.A.

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

For a discussion of the large-scale structure of spiral nebulae, we should like, of course, to choose a stellar system which we are certain is similar to our own. Since we know that our own Galaxy is a spiral galaxy, this narrows our choice to the spiral galaxies and, of those, we can immediately eliminate the so-called barred spirals, as we know that our galaxy is not a barred spiral. Hence, we need only consider spirals of types Sa, Sb, and Sc on Hubble's system. NGC 4594 is an Sa system with a large central spheroidal system typical of these early-type spirals. Undoubtedly, our Galaxy does not have such a large spheroidal system since it would be obvious as a large bulge which simply has not been observed. Next, M 81 is typical of the Sb spirals in which the central system has shrunk considerably. Finally, M 33 is typical of the Sc spirals in which the central system has shrunk until it actually approaches a semi-stellar point.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1958