Galaxies

UNIT 13 GALAXIES
Structure
13.1 Introduction
Objectives
13.2 Galaxy Morphology
Hubble’s Classification of Galaxies
13.3 Elliptical Galaxies
The Intrinsic Shapes of Ellipticals
de Vaucouleurs Law
Stars and Gas
13.4 Spiral and Lenticular Galaxies
Bulges
Disks
Galactic Halo
The Milky Way Galaxy
13.5 Gas and Dust in the Galaxy
13.6 Spiral Arms
13.7 Active Galaxies
13.8 Summary
13.9 Terminal Questions
13.10 Solutions and Answers

13.1 INTRODUCTION
On a clear, dark night, you can see the diffuse faint, narrow band of the Milky Way
stretching across the sky. It becomes broadened towards the constellation Sagittarius,
and is seen to be covered here and there with dark areas. The Italian astronomer and
physicist Galileo Galilei was the first to observe the Milky Way through a small
telescope. He saw in the faint band an array of stars and clusters of stars, interspersed
with dark patches.

Following Galileo’s pioneering observations in the 17th century, the Milky Way has
been studied extensively with a variety of telescopes of increasing sensitivity and
sophistication. We now know that the Milky Way is composed of more than a
hundred billion stars, spread in a large, thin disk with a bloated centre, which is
known as the bulge. The disk has a diameter of about 30,000 pc, but it is only about
1000 pc thick. There are large spiral features, known as spiral arms in the disk. An
object with a structure like that of the Milky Way is called a spiral galaxy. The Sun is
an inconspicuous star, situated in the disk of the Milky Way, at a distance of about
8,500 pc from the centre.

Our Galaxy is not the only one in existence. Within the observing limits of even a
moderately large telescope there are about 10 billion galaxies, covering a wide range
of sizes and shapes. While about half the galaxies have shapes like the Milky Way, a
large fraction of the rest have the appearance of ellipses. Many galaxies have irregular
shapes, while some are mere dwarfs compared to the larger systems. The spiral galaxy
NGC 4622, shown in Fig. 13.3, is similar to the Milky Way. If we could move out of
our Galaxy, and observe it from a great distance along a line of sight which is
perpendicular to the disk, it would show a more or less similar appearance.

Some galaxies occur as single objects, while others occur in groups of a small number
of galaxies or in large clusters containing thousands of galaxies. It is not unusual to
find two galaxies in collision with each other, or interacting with each other from a
5
Galaxies and the distance. The centres of a small fraction of galaxies contain what is known as an
Universe active galactic nucleus. This is a tiny object compared to the whole galaxy, but emits
energy which can exceed by far the entire energy output of the rest of the galaxy.

Using very large telescopes on the Earth, or the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) which
is in orbit around the Earth, it is possible to obtain images of galaxies which are
located extremely far away. Light from these galaxies takes a long time to reach us.
Light from the galaxies that we detect now, began its journey towards the Earth so
long ago that the galaxies, and the Universe itself, were significantly younger at that
time. The galaxies at these early epochs are found to be significantly smaller and less
well-formed than the galaxies closer to us, which we observe at a much later time in
the history of the Universe. From these observations of distant galaxies, some idea is
now emerging about the formation of galaxies, and their subsequent evolution to their
present state. We shall consider some of these matters in some detail in the following
sections.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
• explain Hubble’s classification of galaxies;
• describe the properties of elliptical galaxies;
• state de Vaucouleurs law;
• describe the properties of lenticular and spiral galaxies; and
• distinguish between normal and active galaxies.

13.2 GALAXY MORPHOLOGY

A galaxy is a system of a very large number of stars, which are bound together by
their mutual gravitational attraction. A typical galaxy, like our own Milky Way,
contains ~ 1011 stars, spread over a region of size ~ 30 kpc, and has luminosity
~ 1011 LΘ, where LΘ is the luminosity of the Sun (Fig. 13.1).

6 Fig.13.1: The Milky Way as seen in the sky

 Galaxies

Fig. 13.2: An artist’s sketch of the Milky Way Galaxy

In spite of their very great energy output, such galaxies appear to be very faint when
observed from the Earth, because of their vast distances from us. A few galaxies are
visible to the naked eye as faint patches of light on dark nights, and many more are
visible when a small telescope is used.

Faint, diffuse objects observed in the night sky are called nebulae. The nature of these
nebulae was the subject of intense debate in the 1920s. While some of the nebulae are
clearly objects in our own Galaxy, like remains of supernovae, it was not clear
whether some of the objects were inside our Galaxy, or at great distances outside it.

The matter was finally settled by Edwin Hubble who determined that the distance to
the Andromeda nebula is about 700 kpc by observing variable stars in it. The modern
value of this distance places the nebula far outside the confines of our own galaxy.
Hubble’s observation established that the nebula was an independent spiral galaxy; he
went on to study and classify many other galaxies.

×106 pc from us
Fig.13.3: The spiral galaxy NGC 4622. The galaxy is located at a distance of about 70×
7
Galaxies and the 13.2.1 Hubble’s Classification of Galaxies
Universe
The observed images of galaxies show that they come in a wide variety of brightness,
shape, size and structure. Each observed galaxy is different in detail from other
galaxies, and when a large number of galaxies are examined, it becomes obvious that
there are some basic types into which galaxies can be classified. The first detailed
classification system was introduced by Edwin Hubble in 1936. This pioneering work
has been followed by other more sophisticated classification systems which take into
account the observed properties of galaxies in greater detail, but Hubble’s scheme is
the most widely used even at the present time, because of its simplicity and the insight
that it provides from observational details which can be easily obtained even with a
modest sized telescope.

Hubble’s scheme can be illustrated by his tuning fork diagram shown in Fig. 13.4.
At the left of the diagram, along the base of the tuning fork, are the elliptical galaxies,
which have simple elliptical shapes and appear to be smooth and without any
additional structures. Starting with the almost spherical galaxies of type E0, as one
moves towards the right, the images of galaxies become increasingly elliptical. The
sequence of elliptical galaxies terminates at the point where the two arms of the tuning
fork begin. Along the upper arm are the so called normal galaxies, which come in two
types: lenticular or S0 galaxies and spiral galaxies. As we move to the right along the
upper arm, from spiral type Sa to Sb to Sc, the bulges in the spiral galaxies become
less prominent, and the spiral arms appear to be more open. We will describe the
various galaxy types in greater detail in the following sections.

Normal spiral galaxies

Elliptical galaxies
Sa Sb Sc

E0 E4 E7 S0
Lenticular
galaxy

SBa SBb SBc

Barred spiral galaxies

Fig.13.4: Hubble’s tuning fork diagram

The lower arm of the fork again has lenticular and spiral galaxies, but with a linear
central feature called a bar. These barred galaxies constitute about half of all
lenticular and spiral galaxies. The distinction between normal and barred galaxies is
not absolute, in the sense that most galaxies have some faint bar like features, but a
galaxy is called barred only when the bar is very prominent. Every galaxy type along
the upper arm of the fork has a barred counterpart along the lower arm.

The classification of galaxies as suggested by Hubble is based on very luminous

galaxies, with absolute magnitude MB ≤ − 20, which he called giant galaxies.
However, when galaxies in our neighbourhood are observed, it is found that the most
numerous galaxies are significantly less luminous and more compact than the giants.
These dwarf galaxies are designated as dE.
8
Many galaxies have highly irregular shapes, and prominent features like jets, tails and Galaxies
rings. It is believed that these features are often produced because of interactions
between galaxies, which can lead to large scale disturbances in the distribution of stars
and gas in the galaxies. Many examples of galaxies in on-going close interaction can
be seen. Large galaxies can also swallow significantly smaller companions, and this
process of cannibalisation can lead to significant changes in the structure of the large
galaxy. It is difficult to classify galaxies with highly irregular structures because of
their complexity.

SAQ 1 Spend
5 min.
A galaxy of absolute magnitude M = − 20 is at a distance of 700 kpc. Would it be
visible to the naked eye?

13.3 ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES

When elliptical galaxies were first photographed, they were observed to have elliptical
shapes and a smooth distribution of light (see Fig. 13.5). They were lacking in features
which are very prominent in spiral galaxies, like spiral arms and dark patches and
lanes of dust. Later observations with highly sensitive detectors have shown that
elliptical galaxies often do have faint features produced by dust and other factors.
These faint features turn out to be important indicators of the origin and evolution of
elliptical galaxies to their present form.

Fig.13.5: The elliptical galaxy M87

Elliptical galaxies have an enormous range of optical luminosities. The so called giant
ellipticals have luminosities L ≥ L*, where L* ≈ 2 × 1010LΘ is a characteristic galaxy
luminosity. The number density of galaxies declines sharply for luminosity L > L*. A
galaxy with luminosity L ≈ L* has an absolute magnitude of M ≈ − 20. The most
luminous elliptical galaxies can have L ≥ 100L*.

Elliptical galaxies with L ≤ 3 × 109 LΘ, i.e, M ≥ − 18, are called dwarf ellipticals. 9
Galaxies and the 13.3.1 The Intrinsic Shapes of Ellipticals
Universe
When the distribution of light in an elliptical galaxy is studied, it is found that the
isophotes, or curves of equal light intensity, are elliptical in shape; this in fact gives
this type of galaxy its name. In the simplest elliptical galaxies, all the ellipses have the
same centre, their major axes are oriented in almost the same direction, and the
ellipticities are nearly constant.

It was believed at one time that elliptical galaxies acquired their shape due to rotation.
The rotation would cause the galaxy to bulge in directions normal to the axis of
rotation, because of the centrifugal force. However, observations of luminous
elliptical galaxies show that they do not rotate fast enough for the observed flattening
to be due to the rotation. It is now known that the shape comes about because of the
way the stars in the galaxy move.

13.3.2 de Vaucouleurs Law

Most galaxies are so far away that the stars in them cannot be seen individually, and
we can only observe the integrated light from stars in different regions of the galaxy.
The appearance of an external galaxy is therefore like that of a diffuse object. It is
therefore appropriate that we measure the surface brightness of the galaxy, which is
the amount of light received per unit angular area of the galaxy, say one square arc
second.

The surface brightness of light along the isophotes of an elliptical galaxy decreases as
we move away from the centre. It was discovered by G. de Vaucouleurs that the
surface brightness is a very simple function of the length of the semi-major axis of the
isophote. If r is this length, then the surface brightness I(r) is given by

1/ 4
I (r ) = I (0)10 −3.33( r / re ) (13.1)

where re is called the effective radius and I(0) is the surface brightness at r = 0. The
total light emitted by the elliptical galaxy is given by
∞
∫0 I (r )2πr dr = 3.37 × 10
−3
LE = πre2 I (0) (13.2)

Half the total light of the galaxy is emitted from inside re:

re 1
∫0 I (r )2πr dr = 2 LE (13.3)

de Vaucouleurs’ law takes on a particularly simple form if the intensity is expressed in

magnitudes.

It can then be written as:

 8.325 1/ 4 
µ ( r ) = µ ( 0) +  r  (13.4)
 r 1/4 
 e 

Here µ(r) is the surface brightness of the galaxy expressed in magnitudes per square
arc second, and µ(0) is the corresponding magnitude at the centre of the galaxy. It
follows from this equation that a plot of the surface brightness against r1/ 4 should be a
straight line. The surface brightness becomes fainter by 8.325 magnitudes in going
10 from r = 0 to r = re.
The light distribution in most elliptical galaxies does follow de Vaucouleurs law fairly Galaxies
closely. NGC 661 is an excellent example of this; we have shown, in Fig. 13.6, a plot
of the surface brightness in magnitude against r1/4. The plot is seen to be a straight
line, except in the central bright region where there is significant flattening of the
curve. Much of the deviation seen here is due to the effect of the Earth’s atmosphere.

− 10

−9 NGC 661
Surface brightness in magnitudes

−8

−7

−6

−5

−4

−3
1 2 3
1/4
(Distance from centre)

Fig.13.6: The surface brightness distribution of the galaxy NGC661 (centred around 5500 Å
1/4
wavelength). On the x axis is shown r , where r is the major axis distance of the elliptical
isophotes from the centre. On the y axis is shown the surface brightness in magnitude,
with the origin shifted for convenience

13.3.3 Stars and Gas

A study of the colour and spectrum of elliptical galaxies shows that they lack blue
stars. These stars are highly luminous, and are much more massive than the Sun. The
total lifetime τN of a star, during which the usable nuclear fuel in it is exhausted,
depends on its mass,

−3.5
M 
 10 
τ N ~ 10   yr (13.5)
 MΘ 

The blue stars being more massive than the Sun have a lifetime significantly less than
1010yr, with the most massive stars having a lifetime as short as ~ 107 yr. The lack of
such stars means that there has been no star forming activity in ellipticals in relatively
recent times. This points to the absence of substantial amounts of cool gas mixed with
dust from which stars can be formed.

Giant ellipticals contain ≤ 108 − 109 MΘ of cool gas. Observations from X-ray
satellites have, however, shown that ellipticals can be highly luminous at X-ray
wavelengths, which indicates the presence of significant amounts of hot gas, at
temperatures of a few times 107 K. In very bright ellipticals, the mass of the gas can
be as high as ~ 1011 MΘ, which constitutes ~ 10 − 20% of the visible mass of the
galaxy.

SAQ 2 Spend
5 min.
Explain in your own words why we expect the gas in elliptical galaxies to be hot.

11
Galaxies and the
Universe
13.4 SPIRAL AND LENTICULAR GALAXIES
Spiral galaxies are identified by a disk-like structure in which are present the spiral
arms. An image of the famous spiral galaxy M31, which is also known as the
Andromeda galaxy, is shown in Fig. 13.7.

A characteristic of the disk is that it is much extended but rather thin. When a spiral
galaxy is viewed face-on, i.e., when the normal to the disk is along the line of sight,
the disk appears to be circular, as in the case of NGC 4622 (see Fig.13.3). When there
is a non-zero angle between the normal and the line of sight, the disk then appears to
be elliptical, as in the case of the Andromeda galaxy. When the disk is viewed edge-
on, the disk appears to be rather thin, as in Fig. 13.8.

Apart from the disk, spiral galaxies contain a central bulge, which is quite obvious in
all the spiral galaxies. They also have a very large but faint halo, whose existence
becomes apparent from a detailed study of the distribution and motion of stars.

Lenticular galaxies, like the spirals, have a bulge and a disk, but the disk does not
contain spiral arms. The bulge and the disk here are of approximately equal
prominence. The bulge has properties very similar to elliptical galaxies, except that it
contains more gas and dust.

Fig.13.7: The Andromeda galaxy, which is spiral galaxy of type Sb, at a distance of 2.2 million light
years from us. Two dwarf galaxies, which are satellites of the Andromeda galaxy are seen
in the image

13.4.1 Bulges
The bulge of spiral galaxies is a dense system of stars in the inner region of a galaxy,
more or less spherical in shape. The bulge of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, can be
seen, towards the constellation Sagittarius, and a bulge is clearly visible in the spiral
galaxies M31 and NGC891 (see Figs. 13.7 and 13.8). The properties of the bulges are
rather similar to the properties of elliptical galaxies.

In addition to the systematic motion, the stars in the bulges also have significant
random motion, which supports them against gravity. The number density of stars in
12 the bulge is about 104 higher than the number density in the neighbourhood of the
Sun. Bulges have very little gas in them, except near the centre, and so there is not Galaxies
much ongoing star formation. This means that the bulge does not have the short lived,
high mass blue stars which are present in the disks, because of the continuous star
formation taking place there.

The scale size of the bulges is typically a few kiloparsec (kpc), while the radius of the
disk of a spiral galaxy like ours is about 15 kpc. The prominence of the bulge relative
to the disk decreases along the Hubble sequence (see Fig. 13.4), with the bulges being
most conspicuous in spiral galaxies of type Sa and being almost absent in the galaxies
at the end of the Hubble sequence and beyond.

Fig.13.8: The spiral galaxy NGC 891, which is seen edge on. The thin disk and the bulge are clearly
seen. Along the plane of the disk is seen a dark band, which is a layer of dust present in
the galaxy

13.4.2 Disks
The disks in the more luminous (MB ≤ − 20) spiral galaxies extend to ~ 15 kpc or
more, while their thickness is only a few hundred parsec, which makes them rather
thin. The disks are generally taken to be circular in shape (even though they may
appear to be elliptical, due to the projection effect mentioned above). The surface
brightness of the disk follows a simple exponential law. At a distance r from the
centre, measured along the mid-plane of the disk, it is given by

r
−
I d ( r ) = I d (0) e rd (13.6)

where rd is the disk scale length. This is a few kpc for the typical spiral galaxy.
If we move normal to the disk keeping r constant, the surface brightness decreases,
and at a distance z from the mid-plane, it is given by

Id (r, z) = Id (r) exp −z/h (13.7)

where Id (r) is as in Eq. (13.6). The scale length h is a few hundred parsec. A galaxy,
whether spiral, elliptical or of any other type, does not have a sharp boundary. The
surface brightness, and therefore the number density of stars which produce the light,
decreases as one moves away from the centre, and gradually reduces to zero. In such a
13
Galaxies and the circumstance, it is best to characterize disk size by scale lengths like rd and h, and the
Universe sizes of bulges and ellipticals with the effective radii.

The total light emitted by the disk is obtained by integrating Eq. (13.6) over the
surface of the disk:
∞
∫0 2πr I d (r ) dr = 2πrd I d (0)
2
Ld = (13.8)

If we assume that the distribution of light in the bulge is of the de Vaucouleurs type,
then the total light Lb emitted by it is given by Eq. (13.2). The ratio of the emission
from the disk to the emission from the bulge is then

2
Ld  I ( 0)   rd 
= 5.94 × 10 2  d 


r

 (13.9)
Lb  I b ( 0 )   e 

For a galaxy without a significant disk component, like an elliptical, this ratio is zero.
For lenticular galaxies it is ~ 1, and it increases along the Hubble sequence towards
the late type spirals.

As star formation is an ongoing process in the disk, massive blue stars can be
observed in it. Since such stars have a short lifetime, they cannot be found in
environments where there is no star formation taking place like bulges of spiral
galaxies or elliptical galaxies. The presence of massive stars makes the disk bluer on
the whole than the bulge. Stars in the disk are in differential rotation around the centre
of the galaxy. You have already read about the differential rotation of stars in our own
galaxy, the Milky Way in Block 3.

About half of the disks of spiral galaxies, as well as lenticulars, have a linear structure
which is known as a bar. We have seen in Section 13.2.1 that the lower arm of
Hubble’s tuning fork diagram contains these objects.

Spend SAQ 3
5 min.
Explain in your own words why older galaxies should be redder.

13.4.3 Galactic Halo

A halo of stars and globular clusters is found to be surrounding the bulge and disk of
our Galaxy. The halo extends to substantial distances beyond the disk, and has the
shape of a flattened spheroid (see Fig. 13.9). Such halos are believed to exist in all
galaxies to a greater or lesser extent.

Globular clusters are gravitationally bound systems of 105 − 106 stars. These clusters
are found in the disk plane and close to it, as well as far from the plane. There are
about 150 globular clusters associated within our Galaxy, and these are found to be
distributed approximately in a sphere around the centre of the galaxy. A characteristic
of the globular clusters is that they are very old stars. The clusters far from the plane
are very metal poor, the abundance of the heavy elements in them being as small as
1/300 of the solar value. These clusters are estimated to be at least 11 − 12 Gyr old,
which makes them the oldest structures in our Galaxy.

We expect that other galaxies too would have halos like our own galaxy. One way of
tracing a halo in external galaxies is through the system of globular clusters, which
can be observed to great distances. Globular clusters have been observed around many
14 galaxies, and elliptical galaxies are found to be particularly rich in these objects.
SAQ 4 Spend Galaxies
5 min.
Explain why metal poor stars are very old.

13.4.4 The Milky Way Galaxy

Our Galaxy, called the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy of type Sbc, which is
intermediate to Hubble types Sb and Sc. The bulge of the galaxy is clearly visible to
the naked eye in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The disk of stars is
visible as a diffuse band going across the night sky. A sketch of the structure of the
galaxy is shown in Fig. 13.9.

Fig.13.9: A sketch of our Galaxy, showing the bulge, disk and the halo

The visible bulge is about a few kiloparsec in radius, while the extent of the radius of
the disk is ~ 15 kpc. The Sun is located about 8 kpc or 28000 lys from the galactic
centre, some distance away from the mid-plane of the disk. The luminosity of the disk,
i.e., the total amount of energy per second emitted by all the stars in the disk,
is ~ 2 × 1011LΘ, where LΘ = 4 × 1033 erg s−1 is the luminosity of the Sun. The total
mass of stars in the disk is ~ 6 × 1011 MΘ, where MΘ = 2 × 1033 g is the mass of the
Sun.

13.5 GAS AND DUST IN THE GALAXY

It was discovered through observations in the early decades of the 20th century that
inter-stellar space, i.e., the space between the stars in our Galaxy contains matter in
the form of gas and dust. The density of the gas is very low and it is difficult to detect
it. The dust usually occurs well mixed with the gas, and constitutes only about one
percent of the total material. The dust nevertheless is able to significantly obscure the
light coming to us from distant stars, and therefore can be easily detected. The gas and
dust together are called the inter-stellar medium (ISM) of the Galaxy.

Inter-stellar dust often occurs in the form of clouds, as is evident from the many dark
nebulae, like the Horsehead nebula (Fig. 13.10a), which are observed in the Galaxy.
The Eagle nebula and the details of the great clouds of dust observed by the Hubble
Space telescope are shown in Fig. 13.10b and c. The dust is mostly confined to the
disk of the Galaxy, and can be clearly seen in the Milky Way, even with the naked
eye, as great dark patches covering the galaxy here and there. It is specially so towards
the Galactic centre.
15
Galaxies and the
Universe

(a)

(c)

(b)

Fig.13.10: a) The Horsehead nebula; b) great columns of dust and gas in the Eagle nebula with c)
its details as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope

The distribution of dust in the disk is particularly evident when a spiral galaxy is
viewed close to the edge of the disk, as in the case of the galaxy NGC891, which is
shown in Fig. 13.8. Dust affects light passing through it by scattering as well as by
absorption. Both absorption and scattering by dust remove a fraction of light coming
to an observer from a star, and the effect of the two together is termed as extinction.
The fraction of light lost due to extinction depends upon the wavelength of light, the
size of the dust grains, and the quantity of dust in the path of light.

For the dust found in the ISM of our Galaxy, the extinction is approximately
proportional to the reciprocal of the wavelength. This means that blue light suffers the
extinction most and near-infrared light the least. Because dust is concentrated in the
Galactic plane, a star in the plane observed by us is significantly dimmed and
reddened.

Gas and dust have been observed in other spiral galaxies as well. It was believed for
long that elliptical galaxies are free of gas and dust. But X-ray observations have
shown that these galaxies contain hot gas. Careful observation in recent years has
shown that a surprising number of elliptical galaxies also contain small quantities of
dust. This can be distributed in the form of a disk in the central region of the galaxy
16 and sometimes larger disks are also present. Some elliptical galaxies contain a large
quantity of dust, which can be distributed over a region larger than the visible extent Galaxies
of the galaxy. A good example of a giant elliptical galaxy containing dust very
prominently is the radio galaxy Centaurus A shown in Fig. 13.11.

Fig.13.11: The elliptical galaxy Centaurus A which is a highly luminous radio source. A prominent
dust lane is seen to be running across the face of the galaxy

SAQ 5 Spend
5 min.
Explain why stars towards the centre of our galaxy appear fainter and redder.

13.6 SPIRAL ARMS

The disks of spiral galaxies contain spiral arms, which make these galaxies very
photogenic. The typical spiral galaxy has two arms, but many galaxies have three or
four arms. Spiral arms are found to contain many massive, blue stars. Since such stars
can only live for ≤ 10 Myr, the arms must be sites of continuing star formation. The
young blue stars are hot, and they emit radiation which can ionize any gas which may
be present around them. The gas produces emission lines which can be detected. Such
regions ionized by stars are known as HII regions. HII regions are abundant in spiral
arms, indicating the presence of large quantities of gas, as well as populations of
young massive stars. The arms also contain significant quantities of dust.

The disk in a galaxy rotates differentially, that is, stars which are closer to the centre
generally rotate with higher angular speeds than those which are further away. This
differential motion should lead to tighter winding of spiral arms. It can be shown that
for our Galaxy, the arms should have tightened significantly in less than 109 yr. Since
the Galaxy was formed more than 10 billion years ago, the arms should have been
much more wound up than what is observed. The fact that we do not observe such
winding up in our Galaxy and other similar galaxies is explained by the density wave
theory of spiral arms. According to this theory, the stars and gas present in the arms
are not fixed there. As stars and gas move along their orbits in the disk, at some point
they pass through the arms and slow down. This leads to crowding of stars and gas in
the arms, and therefore to star formation. The arms can therefore be looked upon as
density waves.

17
Galaxies and the
Universe

Fig.13.12: Spiral arms in galaxies

13.7 ACTIVE GALAXIES

A very small fraction of all galaxies are found to be active, in that they emit very
significant quantities of energy which is not produced by the stars. The energy is
produced in a very compact region at the centre of the galaxy, and in many active
galaxies exceeds by far the energy produced by the stars. The compact region from
which the energy is produced is known as the active galactic nucleus (AGN).

A “normal” galaxy like the Milky Way contains ≥ 1011 stars, each of which emits
1033 erg s−1. The total emission from all the stars is therefore ~ 1044 erg s−1. This
energy is produced from a region which extends over a few tens of kiloparsec. An
AGN, on the other hand, produces energy at the rate of 1044 − 1047 erg s−1, from a
region which is a fraction of parsec in size. The radiation produced by stars is thermal
in character, i.e., the spectrum of the radiation is similar to the spectrum produced by a
hot gas. The spectrum of radiation produced by an AGN is quite different, and in
simple cases has a power-law form. This means that the intensity varies as some
power of the frequency:

Iν ∝ νγ (13.10)

where γ is a constant.

The spectrum of active galaxies is very broad, extending from the radio region to the
infra-red, optical, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray regions. The shape of the
spectrum indicates that the physical processes that produce the radiation are different
from the processes which produce the spectrum of a hot gas. These processes are
called non-thermal. The spectrum from stars has a number of absorption lines in it,
which are produced by the absorption of thermal radiation by atoms of specific
chemical elements in the cooler region of the stars. While the spectra of AGN do have
absorption lines, the spectra also exhibit very prominent emission lines, which are
produced by non-thermal processes.

There are different kinds of active galaxies. Seyfert galaxies are generally spiral
galaxies with an AGN which is moderately luminous. Radio galaxies are always
18
elliptical, and are associated with highly luminous radio emission. BL-Lacs are active Galaxies
galaxies which are ellipticals. Their characteristic is that, unlike as in the other AGN,
emission lines are either completely absent from their spectra, or are weak. The most
luminous AGN are the quasars. The luminosity of the AGN here is so high that it
outshines the galaxy. The appearance of the object is therefore that of a point source,
like a star. Observations by very large telescopes are needed to discern the galaxy
associated with a quasar. You will study more about active galaxies in Unit 14.

The source of the immense quantity of energy produced by an AGN is believed to be

a black hole, resident at the centre of the galaxy. The black hole is thought to be super
6 9
massive, i.e., it has mass in the range of ~ 10 − 10 MΘ. Matter from the region
surrounding the black hole falls onto it, and gravitational energy is released in the
process. This energy is taken up by electrons, which in turn emit the energy through
different processes, producing the observed spectrum. The different kinds of AGN
observed can be explained in terms of variations of this general theme. While the
above picture is more or less accepted, it is not completely proven yet.

It has been established that AGN were far more common early in the life of the
Universe than at present. Many galaxies which are normal now must therefore have
been active in the past. They must therefore contain super-massive black holes which
are dormant. Recent observations have shown that a number of normal galaxies may
indeed host such black holes, and it is even thought possible that all galaxies have
super-massive black holes at their centres. The role of black holes in the formation of
galaxies, and whether the black hole or the galaxy came first, is not understood yet
and is an area of active investigation.

SAQ 6 Spend
5 min.
Explain the difference between thermal and non-thermal radiation.

In this unit you have learnt about galaxies. We now summarise its contents.

13.8 SUMMARY
• A galaxy is a system of stars, gas and dust, held together by the mutual
gravitational pull of these components. There are billions of galaxies in the
universe.
• Hubble classified these galaxies as elliptical, lenticular and spirals, both normal
and barred spirals.

• The surface brightness of ellipticals varies according to the de Vaucouleur’s law:

 8.325 1/ 4 
µ ( r ) = µ ( 0) +  r 
 r 1/4 
 e 

• Spiral galaxies are characterised by spiral arms and bulges. The spiral arms
contain clouds gas and dust and new stars are continuously being formed there.
Most galaxies have halos around them which contain extremely old stars.

• In the nuclei of many galaxies unusual phenomena take place involving release of
huge amounts of energy. These nuclei are called active galactic nuclei. It is
believed that this activity is caused by massive black holes sitting in the nuclei.
The Milky Way galaxy also has a 106 MΘ black hole at its centre.

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Galaxies and the
Universe
13.9 TERMINAL QUESTIONS Spend 30 min.

1. Explain Hubble’s scheme of galaxy classification. Why has this scheme proved
enduring? What class has been assigned to the Milky Way Galaxy?

2. State de Vaucouleurs law and define the effective radius of an elliptical galaxy. Is
this law obeyed by elliptical galaxies?

3. Explain how the surface brightness in the disc of a spiral galaxy varies with the
distance from the centre of the galaxy. Show that the total light emitted by the disc
is 2πrd2 I d (0) , where rd is the scale length of the disc and Id (0) is the surface
brightness at r = 0. What is the meaning of rd?

4. Define an active galaxy. What is the source of its activity?

13.10 SOLUTIONS AND ANSWERS

Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)

1. M = m − 5 log r + 5 , where r is in parsec, here 7 × 105 pc.

− 20 = m − 5 (5.8451) + 5 ⇒ m = − 20 + 29.2255 − 5 ≈ 4.2

Since human eye can see up to magnitude 6, this object will be visible to the
naked eye.
2. See Text.
3. In older galaxies, there are fewer younger (blue) stars but a large number of red
stars as you have studied in Unit 10.
4. See Text.
5. See Text.
6. See Text.

Terminal Questions
1. See Text.
2. See Text.
3. For the first part, see Text. For the second part,

∞
∫0 2πr I d (0) e
− r / rd
Ld = dr put r/rd = x

∞
= 2π I d (0) rd2 ∫0 e − x x dx

= 2π I d (0) rd2 , since the integral = 1

For the third part,

I d (r ) = I d (0) e − r / rd

At r = rd, Id becomes 1/e of Id (0), i.e., intensity reduces to 1/e of its initial value.
4. See Text.
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