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lenticular galaxy

American  

noun

plural

lenticular galaxies

  1. Astronomy. a type of galaxy shaped like a flattened disk with a central bulge. Compare elliptical galaxy, irregular galaxy, spiral galaxy.

lenticular galaxy Scientific  
/ lĕn-tĭk′yə-lər /

  1. A galaxy having a central bulge surrounded by a flattened disk with no pattern of spiral arms. Lenticular galaxies are intermediate in the Hubble classification system between elliptical and spiral forms and are classified using the designation S0, or SB0 if they have a bar of stars, gas, and dust through the nucleus. Like spiral galaxies, they are disk-shaped with a central bulge, but like elliptical galaxies they contain relatively little gas and dust.

  2. Compare elliptical galaxy irregular galaxy spiral galaxy See more at Hubble classification system

Example Sentences

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An over-massive black hole in the compact lenticular galaxy NGC 1277.

From Nature • Mar. 11, 2018

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.