•Galaxies live in clusters
–Rich clusters: thousands of galaxies
–Poor clusters: Few than a thousand
–
•Fundamental difference between stars and
galaxies:
–Stars live isolated lives:
•They are much smaller than distance
between them
•
•
•
•They virtually never collide
•
–Galaxies are not isolated
•They are only slightly smaller than the
distances between them
•
•
•
•The can (and do) collide, and interact
with gas within clusters