Top 5 Galaxies That Look Awesome
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, gas, dust, and dark matter. Galaxies are impressively beautiful. They come in many various shapes and sizes. Some are spiral while others are elliptical. Galaxies can contain a few thousand stars while others have a hundred trillion of them.
In this post we are gong to discuss the top 5 most awesome looking galaxies yet discovered by man.
5. M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
A galaxy 2.5 light years away from Earth and having one trillion stars. M31, or better known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is a big one measuring 220,000 light years across. It is estimated of having twice the number of stars than our own Milky Way Galaxy. The core is so densely packed with stars that all you can see is light.
4. M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
Located 28 million light years away, this sombrero (Mexican-style hat) shaped galaxy is one of the brightest you will find in the sky. It has a dark dust ring which circles the outer edge. This ring is the primary location where a lot of new stars are formed. The galaxy's center is thought to have a super massive black hole.
The Sombrero Galaxy looks like a giant elliptical galaxy due to its huge bulge in the center but is classified as an unbarred spiral galaxy. The galaxy itself is thought to be 50,000 light years across.
3. Messier 51A: The Whirlpool Galaxy
One of the best known galaxies. It is only about 23 million light years away. The large mass of light to the side is an interacting galaxy which appears to be behind the Whirlpool Galaxy.
The Whirlpool Galaxy's colors have made it quite attractive. The pink and red are star-forming regions, the blue are star clusters, and the dark parts are where huge dust clouds that don't allow light to pass through. This galaxy is roughly 60,000 light years across.
2. Messier 64: The Black Eye Galaxy
A spectacular galaxy that may look sinister or evil. It has a dark band of light absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright center, giving it popular nicknames like "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. Its distance is roughly 24 million light years away.
It's a spiral galaxy but interestingly with two counter-rotating disks. The inner disk rotates one direction, while the outer disk rotates the opposite way. The outer disk stretches out 51,000 light years across.
1. M81: The Grand Spiral Galaxy
M81 is a bright spiral galaxy with an extraordinarily bright, hot "bulge" or densely packed clusters of stars in the center. Its black hole may be dying so it is fainter than a quasar but brighter than the nucleus of a "normal" spiral galaxy. This galaxy is 100,000 light years across.
There are more galaxies out there yet to be discovered that may look more awesome, beautiful or strange. I hope that mankind discovers them soon.
References: http://www.oddee.com/item_96598.aspx
http://earthsky.org/clusters-nebulae-galaxies/andromeda-galaxy-closest-spiral-to-milky-way
http://space-facts.com/sombrero-galaxy/
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0506a/
http://freestarcharts.com/messier-51
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackEyeGalaxy
https://www.nasa.gov/missionpages/hubble/news/spiralgalaxy.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_81
Image Sources: First image by Pixabay while the rest are Google Images for noncommercial use.
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There is more to science then just numbers, and graphs. There is also beauty. Thank you for putting together such a nice display of the wonders of the cosmos! You never know what future astronomer could be inspired by reading this very post!
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I would love to see any of these. They are impressive
Thank You!
M51 is my favorite to look at through my telescope. I once got to view it through a 16" diameter telescope - very impressive! :)
You are lucky that you live in the northern hemisphere. Galaxies are not visible here in the Philippines.
Actually they are, my friend!
There are plenty of galaxies that you should be able to see from there on a clear night, if you are somewhere without too much city lights. You should be able to see, for example, the Magellenic Clouds.
You also have a "ringside seat" to look at Omega Centauri, not a galaxy, but the largest and very beautiful globular star cluster in the Milky Way.
By the way, you should be able to see either of these objects even with a pair of binoculars! :)
That's good to know. Maybe if I could take a vacation in the provinces then I might have a chance. Thank you.
You're welcome! Thanks for posting the nice pictures! ;)
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so many stars, so many possibilities
And the possibilities are almost endless!
the sombrero is great!
I love M104!! The sombrero xD