Glossary term: Disk Galaxy

Description: A disk galaxy is a type of galaxy that features a flat component of stars, gas, and dust, all of which are in circular coplanar motion around the galaxy's center. Spiral arms and associated star-forming activity are often present in these disks. In most galaxy classification schemes, disk galaxies are differentiated from elliptical, irregular, and dwarf galaxies.

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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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This galaxy has a large bulge surrounded by a ring of dust creating an image similar to the mexican hat with the same name

Sombrero galaxy

Caption: This prominent galaxy M 104 is often called the Sombrero galaxy due to its resemblance to the Mexican hat. This look is created by the thin disk oriented nearly edge-on, which appears illuminated by the dominant bulge. Both, the disk and bulge contain stars, but the stars in the bulge tend to be older, while the disk also harbors large amounts of dust and gas creating shadows. M 104 is located in the constellation Virgo approximately 50 light-years away. While some of the dots visible in the picture are foreground stars and others background galaxies, the majority are actually globular clusters, dense massive clusters of stars, associated with the Sombrero Galaxy.
Credit: ESO/P. Barthel credit link

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

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