A Magellanic spiral galaxy is a

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

spiral arm Spiral arms are a defining feature of spiral galaxies. They manifest as spiral-shaped regions of enhanced brightness within the galactic disc. Typically, spiral galaxies exhibit two or more spiral arms. The collective configuration of these arms i ...

. Magellanic spiral galaxies are classified as the type Sm (with sub-categories SAm, SBm, SABm); the prototype galaxy and namesake for Magellanic spirals is the

Large Magellanic Cloud The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf galaxy and satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around , the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, Sagittarius Dwarf ...

, an SBm galaxy. They are usually smaller

dwarf galaxies A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...

and can be considered to be intermediate between dwarf spiral galaxies and

irregular galaxies An irregular galaxy is a galaxy that does not have a distinct regular shape, unlike a spiral or an elliptical galaxy. Irregular galaxies do not fall into any of the regular classes of the Hubble sequence, and they are often chaotic in appearance ...

Magellanic spirals

SAm galaxies are a type of

unbarred spiral galaxy An unbarred spiral galaxyAstronomy Pictures(accessed 18 April 2010) is a type of spiral galaxy without a central bar, or one that is not a barred spiral galaxy. It is designated with an SA in the galaxy morphological classification scheme. A ne ...

, while SBm are a type of

barred spiral galaxy A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. Bars are found in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies in the local universe, and generally affect both the motions of stars and interstellar gas ...

. Linda S. Sparke, John Sill Gallagher, ''Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction'', 2ed., Cambridge University Press, 2007, SABm are a type of

intermediate spiral galaxy An intermediate spiral galaxy is a galaxy that is in between the classifications of a barred spiral galaxy and an unbarred spiral galaxy. It is designated as SAB in the galaxy morphological classification system devised by Gerard de Vaucouleur ...

. Type ''Sm'' and ''Im'' galaxies have also been categorized as

with some structure (type Irr-1). Sm galaxies are typically disrupted and asymmetric. dSm galaxies are dwarf spiral galaxies or

dwarf irregular galaxies An irregular galaxy is a galaxy that does not have a distinct regular shape, unlike a spiral or an elliptical galaxy. Irregular galaxies do not fall into any of the regular classes of the Hubble sequence, and they are often chaotic in appearance ...

, depending on categorization scheme. The Magellanic spiral classification was introduced by Gerard de Vaucouleurs, along with Magellanic irregular (Im), when he revamped the Hubble classification of galaxies.

Grades of Magellanic spiral galaxies

List of Magellanic spirals

Barred (SBm)

(LMC; prototype galaxy) *

Small Magellanic Cloud The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, the SMC has a D25 isophotal diameter of about , and contains several hundred million stars. It has a total mass of approximately 7 bill ...

(SMC) *

NGC 1311 NGC may refer to: Companies * NGC Corporation, the name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998 * National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, a state-owned natural gas company in Trinidad and Tobago * National Grid plc, a former n ...

NGC 4618 NGC 4618 is a distorted barred dwarf galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy is formally classified as a Sm galaxy, which means that its structure vaguely resembles the structure of spiral galaxies. The galaxy is sometimes ref ...

University of Wisconsin
BARRED MAGELLANIC SPIRALS
(accessed 1 March 2009) *

NGC 4236 NGC 4236 (also known as Caldwell 3) is a barred Magellanic spiral galaxy located in the constellation Draco. The galaxy is a member of the M81 Group, a group of galaxies located at a distance of approximately 11.7 Mly (3.6 Mpc) from Earth. ...

NGC 55 NGC 55, also known as the String of Pearls Galaxy, is a Magellanic type barred spiral galaxy located about 6.5 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. It was discovered on 7 July 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. Along ...

* NGC 4214 * NGC 3109 * IC 4710

Intermediate (SABm)

NGC 4625 NGC 4625 is a distorted dwarf galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy is formally classified as a Sm galaxy, which means that its structure vaguely resembles the structure of spiral galaxies. The galaxy is sometimes referred to ...

* NGC 5713

Unbarred (SAm)

* NGC 5204NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
/ref> * NGC 2552

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magellanic Spiral * * Galaxy morphological types