Galaxies are not distributed evenly thoroughout the Universe, but instead tend to congregate in groups and clusters. The ‘environment’ of a galaxy is described by how other galaxies are distributed in its immediate neighbourhood.
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The isolated galaxy NGC821.
Credit: DSS |
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The Leo group.
Credit: DSS |
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The Coma cluster.
Credit: DSS |
Interactions between galaxies and their environments play an important role in galaxy formation and evolution. They may also be responsible for the morphology density relation which indicates that early-type (elliptical and S0) galaxies are preferentially located in high density environments, while late-type galaxies are preferentially located in low density environments.
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