tuning fork diagram

Types of Galaxies

Galaxies come in many different shapes and sizes ranging from dwarf galaxies with as few as 10⁷ stars, to giants with 10¹² stars. Galaxies range from 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs in diameter and are usually separated by millions of parsecs. Edwin Hubble invented a classification of galaxies and grouped them into four classes: spirals, barred spirals, ellipticals and irregulars. He classified spiral and barred spiral galaxies further according to the size of their central bulge and the texture of their arms.