Concept information
Preferred term
spiral arm
Definition(s)
- Spiral arms are regions of stars that extend from the center of barred and unbarred spiral galaxies. These long, thin regions resemble a spiral and thus give spiral galaxies their name. Naturally, different classifications of spiral galaxies have distinct arm-structures. Sc and SBc galaxies, for instance, have very "loose" arms, whereas Sa and SBa galaxies have tightly wrapped arms (with reference to the Hubble sequence). Either way, spiral arms contain many young, blue stars (due to the high mass density and the high rate of star formation), which make the arms so bright. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy#Spiral_arms)
Broader concept(s)
In other languages
-
French
URI
http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-K92W68LN-3
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