spiral galaxy

noun

: a galaxy exhibiting a central nucleus or barred structure from which extend curved arms of higher luminosity

called also spiral nebula

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Object of the week: Whirlpool galaxy This spectacular spiral galaxy is about 31 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. —Jamie Carter, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023

An image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope of stars and galaxies surrounding spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 13 Feb. 2023

The duo of the elliptical galaxy and the spiral galaxy is known as VV 191, and it’s located about 700 million light-years away from Earth. —Ashley Strickland, CNN, 5 Oct. 2022

Spiral Graph asks users to trace out the shape of a spiral galaxy’s arms, helping give astronomers a potential proxy for studying a number of other properties. —Bob Hirshon, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2020

In the lower center of the constellation is a spiral galaxy known as LEDA 2046648. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 13 Feb. 2023

The crowded field shows bright stars and the large spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648, which is more than a billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules. —Julia Musto, Fox News, 3 Feb. 2023

And, in the newest Hubble image of the beautiful spiral galaxy, the European Space Agency (ESA) has captured photos of several stars within our own Milky Way. —Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 3 Nov. 2022

Southern Californian production company Graphic Films, which produced content for NASA, was impressed with his portfolio art of spacecrafts and planets and hired him to paint a rotating spiral galaxy for their 1964 New York World’s Fair film To the Moon and Beyond. —Rhett Bartlett, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Feb. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1913, in the meaning defined above