26.7: Key Terms
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- elliptical galaxy
- a galaxy whose shape is an ellipse and that contains no conspicuous interstellar material
- Hubble constant
- a constant of proportionality in the law relating the velocities of remote galaxies to their distances
- Hubble’s law
- a rule that the radial velocities of remote galaxies are proportional to their distances from us
- irregular galaxy
- a galaxy without any clear symmetry or pattern; neither a spiral nor an elliptical galaxy
- mass-to-light ratio
- the ratio of the total mass of a galaxy to its total luminosity, usually expressed in units of solar mass and solar luminosity; the mass-to-light ratio gives a rough indication of the types of stars contained within a galaxy and whether or not substantial quantities of dark matter are present
- redshift
- when lines in the spectra are displaced toward longer wavelengths (toward the red end of the visible spectrum)
- spiral galaxy
- a flattened, rotating galaxy with pinwheel-like arms of interstellar material and young stars, winding out from its central bulge
- type Ia supernova
- a supernova formed by the explosion of a white dwarf in a binary system and reach a luminosity of about 4.5 × 109 LSun; can be used to determine distances to galaxies on a large scale