logo

Video encyclopedia

Elliptical galaxy

1:42

What is an Elliptical Galaxy?

3:05

An Open Letter to Elliptical Galaxies

1:01

elliptical galaxies

0:54

Teach Astronomy - Elliptical Galaxies

3:16

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Captured Large Spiral Galaxy Wrapped With An Elliptical Galaxy

An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy having an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. Unlike flat spiral galaxies with organization and structure, elliptical galaxies are more three-dimensional, without much structure, and their stars are in somewhat random orbits around the center. They are one of the three main classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hubble sequence and 1936 work The Realm of the Nebulae, along with spiral and lenticular galaxies. Elliptical (E) galaxies are, together with lenticular galaxies (S0) with their large-scale disks, and ES galaxies with their intermediate scale disks, a subset of the "early-type" galaxy population.