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Why are some bright stars classified as galaxies?

April 26, 2017bright Classified Galaxies stars

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Why are some bright stars classified as galaxies?

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The SDSS distinguishes between stars and galaxies based on their shapes: single points of light are stars, and fuzzy patches of light are galaxies. Some stars are bright enough that their light washes out the camera, so to the SDSS’s camera, they look like fuzzy disks instead of single points of light. Their appearance fools the SDSS’s software into classifying them as galaxies.