What does a barred galaxy look like?

Answer 1

A spiral galaxy CAN be called a spiral barred galaxy if it has a central bar. About 50% of all spiral galaxies have a central bar.

It's nothing more than a central core than resembles a bar - or peanut in earlier texts that differentiate it from "normal" spiral galaxies that have a circular or oval centre.

See related links for pictorial of the difference.

Answer 2

It looks like a spiral.

Edit: Why does it look like a spiral? Here's one complication :

The Milky Way Galaxy must have rotated over 50 times so far, at our

distance from the centre. The outer parts take longer to orbit than the inner

parts. So why are the spiral arms so clear and not messy and twisted up?

You can see this isn't such a simple question after all.

The important thing is that the spiral arms contain a lot of new, bright stars.

The process that creates the new stars is not

easy to understand, but the point is that the spiral effect is due to new stars

that are constantly being created. So, a spiral effect appears and is not lost as

the Galaxy keeps rotating.

The theory involves "density waves". Be warned it's a bit complicated, but I've

given you the basic idea.

Answer 3

Technically because it is the type of galaxy, according to the Hubble classification scheme, the Milky Way is. SBc barred spiral.

The galaxy is spiral in shape with a central bar shaped structure.

See related link for a pictorial. Look for SBc

Answer 4

See related link for a picture.