page_title: Galaxy
section_title: Other kinds of galaxies
hierarchical_section_title: Galaxy / Types / Other kinds of galaxies
caption_attribution_description: English: This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows star clusters encircling a galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive. The hive in question the an edge-on lenticular galaxy NGC 5308, located just under 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). Members of a galaxy type that lies somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy, lenticular galaxies such as NGC 5308 are disc galaxies that have used up, or lost, the majority of their gas and dust. As a result, they experience very little ongoing star formation and consist mainly of old and aging stars. On 9 October 1996, one of NGC 5308’s aging stars met a dramatic demise, exploding as a spectacular Type la supernova. Lenticular galaxies are often orbited by gravitationally bound collections of hundreds of thousands of older stars. Called globular clusters, these dense collections of stars form a delicate halo as they orbit around the main body of NGC 5308, appearing as bright dots on the dark sky. The dim, irregular galaxy to the right of NGC 5308 is known, rather prosaically, as SDSS J134646.18+605911.9
context_page_description: A galaxy is a group of many stars, with gas, dust, and dark matter. The name 'galaxy' is taken from the Greek word galaxia meaning milky, a reference to our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
  Gravity holds galaxies together against the general expansion of the universe. In effect, the expansion of the universe takes place between groups of galaxies, not inside those groups. Gravity holds the galaxy together, and the same applies to groups of galaxies, such as our Local Group in the Milky Way. The gravitation is produced by the matter and energy in a galaxy or group of galaxies. Everything in a galaxy moves around a centre of mass, which is also an effect of gravity.
  There are various types of galaxies: elliptical, spiral and lenticular galaxies, which can all be with or without bars. Then there are irregular galaxies. All galaxies exist inside the universe. The observable Universe contains more than 2 trillion galaxies and, overall, as many as an estimated 1×10²⁴ stars.
context_section_description: A lenticular galaxy is a galaxy seen in a disc shape.  Determining the shape of a lenticular galaxy is difficult because the shape can be between spiral galaxy and elliptical galaxy.  The shape can be known by looking at the bulge of the galactic center.  If the bulge is very bright, it is a spiral galaxy
caption: Lenticular galaxy NGC 5308.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows star clusters encircling a galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive. The hive in question the an edge-on lenticular galaxy NGC 5308, located just under 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). Members of a galaxy type that lies somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy, lenticular galaxies such as NGC 5308 are disc galaxies that have used up, or lost, the majority of their gas and dust. As a result, they experience very little ongoing star formation and consist mainly of old and aging stars. On 9 October 1996, one of NGC 5308\u2019s aging stars met a dramatic demise, exploding as a spectacular Type la supernova. Lenticular galaxies are often orbited by gravitationally bound collections of hundreds of thousands of older stars. Called globular clusters, these dense collections of stars form a delicate halo as they orbit around the main body of NGC 5308, appearing as bright dots on the dark sky. The dim, irregular galaxy to the right of NGC 5308 is known, rather prosaically, as SDSS J134646.18+605911.9", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:03:05 10:53:43"}