Elliptical galaxy

A smooth, featureless galaxy of mostly old stars, shaped like a ball or a squashed oval.

Ellipticals have little gas or dust left to make new stars, so they're full of old, yellowish stars and show no arms. They range from dwarfs like M 32 (a companion of Andromeda) to giants like M 87 in the Virgo cluster, which holds trillions of stars and a famous black hole.

In a telescope they look like evenly glowing ovals that brighten smoothly towards the centre.