Spirals are subdivided according to the prominence of the bulge and the arms:
Sa -- large bulge, small arms, modest amounts of interstellar material and star formation
Sb -- medium bulge, more interstellar material
Sc -- small bulge, strong arms, lots of interstellar material and star formation
Sd -- virtually no bulge
Here are edge-on examples from Sa (M104, left) through Sb (NGC 4565, middle) to Sc (NGC 891, right)
And here are face-on examples: (Sa: NGC 1302, GSC-II Image Gallery); (Sb: NGC 4826. Bill Keel); (Sc: NGC 628, Gemini Telescope)
Intermediate cases are given both designations -- like Sbc.
Picture of an Scd-galaxy, M33, a member of the Local Group of galaxies and hence one of the closest to us (at about 800 thousand parsecs). |
Also there is a barred (SB) series where the bulge looks like a bar. This picture is NGC 1365, a barred Sbc. | This one is M95 = NGC 3351, a barred Sb spiral (hence with a more prominent nuclear region and less prominent arms compared with NGC 1365). |