23 Facts About Famous Galaxies That Are Completely Out Of This World

There are galaxies out there that are so famous that they have almost become celebrities in their own right.

There are around 100 billion galaxies in our universe that vary depending upon their size, but let us first understand what exactly is a galaxy. A galaxy is a system of interstellar gas, stars, dark matter, dust, and stellar remnants which are all held together by the gravitational force.

Let us take our planet Earth for instance, which belongs to the Solar System. Now the Solar System is a part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is our home galaxy.

There are thousands of small and large galaxies that humans have discovered but most of them have just been assigned a pattern of letters and numbers for easy identification.

At the same time, some galaxies are well known for their unique characteristics and have been assigned names, such as the Tadpole Galaxy and Whirlpool Galaxy. Generally, all galaxies are divided into three categories based on the shape of galaxy formation.

The first kind is a spiral galaxy, it refers to galaxies that are pinwheel in shape such as the Milky Way which is recognized for its spiral arms. These galaxies look like spirals that have curved arms.

The next type is elliptical galaxies which are oval-shaped and smooth.

The closest elliptical galaxy is the Maffei 1, some other elliptical galaxy examples include the M49 and the M89. The third type is known as irregular galaxies and as their name suggests, these galaxies do not have a definite shape and resemble blobs.

The best-known examples of irregular galaxies are the Large Magellanic Clouds and Small Magellanic Clouds. When it comes to the five main galaxies in the universe, the list includes the likes of Cartwheel Galaxy, Black Eye Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy, Cigar Galaxy, and Bode's Galaxy.

Interestingly, it was the American astronomer, Edwin Hubble, who in 1927 developed the classification system for galaxies.

The famous Hubble Space Telescope has been named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble. The Hubble Space Telescope is widely used for capturing images of various distant galaxies in the universe.

The Most Beautiful Galaxies In The Universe

In our universe, there are millions of galaxies, some close some far but over the years as astronomers have discovered one galaxy after the other they have realized that some galaxies are much more beautiful than others. Let us take a tour around the universe and look at some of the most beautiful galaxies in the universe.

The Andromeda Galaxy at a distance of 2.537 million light-years from Earth is one of the most beautiful galaxies in the universe.

Did you know, the Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object which is visible to the naked eye from Earth.

Interestingly, this galaxy is believed to contain a lot more stars than the Milky Way Galaxy.

Discovered in 1779 by Pierre Méchain, the Sunflower Galaxy at a distance of 27 million light-years from Earth is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful galaxies known to man.

The Sunflower Galaxy is formally known as Messier 63 and is distinctively known by its sinuous, bright arms which are formed by its giant stars.

The Sombrero Galaxy is unique in its looks, and it has a massive central bulge formed by the stars.

Did you know, the Sombrero Galaxy is in the constellation Virgo at a distance of 28 million light-years from Earth?

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy is also regarded as one of the most beautiful galaxies in the universe.

The distance between the Milky Way Galaxy's center and the Sun is around 25,766 light-years.

The famous Whirlpool Galaxy is not only well known for its exquisite beauty but is also one of the brightest galaxies, which can be seen using binoculars in the night sky.

The Whirlpool Galaxy is also a large spiral galaxy just like the Milky Way Galaxy.

Located in the Ursa Major constellation at a distance of 12 million light-years from Earth, the Cigar Galaxy is one of the most beautiful as well as prominent galaxies of the local group.

Did you know, the Cigar Galaxy has produced a supernova in the year 2014 and is also commonly noticed for its high volume of star formation?

Another beautiful galaxy is the Cartwheel Galaxy. It is described as a ring galaxy, a lenticular galaxy, and looks like a cartwheel which has also led to its name being so.

The Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way Galaxy is perhaps one of the most interesting galaxies of all, as it can be attributed to the birth of humanity. Our planet Earth, the only place where humans are known to exist, exists in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Did you know, the Milky Way Galaxy has a bulge in the center that has a diameter of 12,000 light-years?

The Milky Way Galaxy has a warped shape owing to two dwarf galaxies present in the local group.

90% of the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy is dark matter and the part that we can see with our naked eye regarded as luminous matter is only 10%.

Our Milky Way Galaxy has around 200 billion stars. Some of the largest galaxies in the universe have around 100 trillion stars, whereas smaller galaxies have only about 10 billion stars.

Irrespective of how many stars are there in the Milky Way Galaxy, when you look at the night sky, on average you can see only around 2500 stars.

The Milky Way Galaxy is also known as a barred spiral galaxy with its average diameter being around 100,000 light-years. The other well know barred spiral galaxy is the Messier 77.

Did you know, the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy?

The Black Eye Galaxy

The Black Eye Galaxy is another one of the most beautiful and famous spiral galaxies in the universe. It is nicknamed the 'Evil Eye' galaxy owing to its appearance. Let us look at some interesting facts about the Black Eye Galaxy.

The Black Eye Galaxy was discovered back in 1779 by Edward Pigott.

The Black Eye Galaxy has a distinguished name due to the dark band of dust that is present in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus. This phenomenon has played a pivotal role in the galaxy's name being the Black Eye Galaxy.

The Black Eye Galaxy is officially also identified as Messier 64, M64, or even NBC 4826.

The Black Eye Galaxy is present in the constellation Coma Berenice at a distance of around 17 million light-years from Earth.

This spiral galaxy is known to cover a diameter of around 40,000 light-years. This galaxy is also regarded as one of the strangest galaxies in the universe based on its name along with the Tadpole Galaxy.

Did you know, the Black Eye Galaxy is known to spin at a speed of 186 mi per second (300 km per second)?

Interestingly, you do not require a specialized Hubble Space Telescope for viewing the Black Eye Galaxy as a small telescope can do the job as well.

Galaxies By Brightness And Power

When it comes to being the brightest, the most luminous galaxies in the universe, several galaxies top the charts in several categories. Let us look at some of these fairly unknown galaxies in the universe which are recognized for their brightness.

The most luminous galaxy of the universe is the W2246−0526 which is known to be around 350 trillion times brighter than the Sun.

W2246−0526 is also known for releasing 10,000 times more energy than our home spiral galaxy, the Milky Way.

Did you know, that Cosmos Redshift 7 is the brightest distant galaxy in the universe?

The Baby Boom Galaxy, which is a starburst galaxy, at a distance of 12.2 billion light-years holds the title for being the intrinsically brightest galaxy in the universe.

Contrary to being the intrinsically brightest galaxy, the intrinsically faintest galaxy of the universe is the Boötes Dwarf Galaxy.

As its name suggests, the Boötes Dwarf Galaxy lies in the constellation Boötes at a distance of 197,000 light-years.

The galaxy named Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the closest galaxies to our spiral galaxy. The Milky Way holds the title of being the brightest galaxy visible to the naked eye.

Galaxies By Mass And Density

When we calculate the mass and density of galaxies in our universe, we come across some of the most massive and some least massive galaxies. Let us delve deeper into galaxies which are especially known for their masses and density.

The spheroidal galaxy Segue 2, discovered in 2009, holds the title of being the least massive galaxy in the universe.

The dwarf galaxy M85-HCC1 is famous for being the densest galaxy in the entire universe.

Moving on to the most massive spiral galaxy in the universe, the galaxy named ISOHDFS 27 holds the title.

The most massive galaxy in the universe is the ESO 146-IG 005. It is a central galaxy located in Abell 3827.

The biggest galaxies known to men include the likes of IC 1101, Hercules A, ESO 306-17, A2261-BCG, UGC 2885, Condor Galaxy, Comet Galaxy, ESO 444-46, Tadpole Galaxy, and Andromeda Galaxy.

Of these 10 galaxies, the IC 1101, Hercules A, and ESO 306-17 are the top three galaxies.