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Classification of the Milky Way Galaxy

Our Galaxy is classified as Sb (Sky Catalogue 2000.0) or Sbc by most sources. Newer investigations have brought up more and more evidence that the Milky Way probably has a bar, or barlike structure, in its central region, which would modify its classification to become a barred spiral of type SB, or intermediate type between barred and "normal" spirals, SAB.

Already in the 1970s, Gerard de Vaucouleurs has classified the Milky Way Galaxy as "SAB(rs)bc II", where


Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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Last Modification: 7 Jan 2000 19:25 MET