An elliptical galaxy, full of dark lanes of gas, likely formed in the merger of two other galaxies. Elliptical galaxies host less (or no) star birth than spiral galaxies like the Milky Way. (Image credit: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)) WHAT ARE ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES? Elliptical galaxies are the most abundant type of galaxies found in the universe but because of their age and dim qualities, they're frequently outshone by younger, brighter collections of stars. Elliptical galaxies lack the swirling arms of their more well-known siblings, spiral galaxies. Instead, they bear the rounded shape of an ellipse, a stretched-out circle. One of the most famous elliptical galaxies is Cygnus A, which is located roughly 600 million light-years from Earth and is an extremely bright radio source. Cygnus A is not only well-known to astronomers, but has a place in science fiction; it was featured in the 1985 novel "Contact," a Carl Sagan story that later inspired a H...
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