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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2010

Sidney Bergh
Affiliation:
University of Victoria, British Columbia
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Summary

Galaxies are like people. The better you get to know them the more peculiar they often seem to become. Each individual galaxy may be thought of as representing a deviation from some underlying ideal type. ‘Classical morphology is useful because it succeeds to some extent in distinguishing galaxies which are physically different’ (Kormendy 1982, p. 125). It is the task of a galaxy morphologist (1) to recognize the archetype to which a galaxy belongs, and (2) to organize these archetypes of galaxies into a simple scheme that might eventually be interpreted in terms of galactic evolution. This review is mainly devoted to the morphology and classification of normal galaxies, which may be regarded as objects that are in the ‘ground state’ (Ozernoy 1974). Galaxies in excited states, such as quasars and Seyfert galaxies, will not be discussed in detail. Furthermore no mention will be made of purely descriptive classification systems such as those of Wolf (1908) and of Vorontsov-Velyaminov & Krasnogorskaja (1962). For a more detailed discussion of such systems the reader is referred to Sandage (1975). An Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, that appear to fall outside the range of morphological types that are usually encountered among galaxies, has been published by Arp (1966). The vast majority of objects pictured in Arp's atlas appear peculiar because they are interacting (or have recently interacted) with their companions. However, some objects in Arp's catalog are dwarfs that are not peculiar at all (e.g. Atlas Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5).

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1998

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  • Introduction
  • Sidney Bergh, University of Victoria, British Columbia
  • Book: Galaxy Morphology and Classification
  • Online publication: 10 May 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511600166.002
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  • Introduction
  • Sidney Bergh, University of Victoria, British Columbia
  • Book: Galaxy Morphology and Classification
  • Online publication: 10 May 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511600166.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Sidney Bergh, University of Victoria, British Columbia
  • Book: Galaxy Morphology and Classification
  • Online publication: 10 May 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511600166.002
Available formats
×