Type E galaxy

Elliptical galaxies are denoted by the letter E and a number describing the galaxy's apparent shape - 0 for a completely round form, 5 for one twice as long as wide, and 7 for the apparently flattest genuine ellipticals. We do not know, solely from an image, the true shape of such a galaxy; the same galaxy might have quite different degrees of flattening if viewed from different directions. Elliptical galaxies are, in general, characterized by old stellar populations and very little of the gas and dust needed to form new stars.