Learning about galaxies can really put your life into perspective, making you feel small
and insignificant - but they're also beautiful, so let's have a look.
First, the Milky Way.
We'll make this quick because you almost certainly live here.
Most things visible to the naked eye in the sky are part of the Milky Way.
Until the early 1920's, most astronomers thought the Milky Way contained all the stars in the
universe.
It's estimated to contain 100-400 billion stars, and at least as many planets.
The name "Milky Way" is a translation of the Latin "via lactea", which comes from the Greek
"galaktikòs kýklos" (γαλακτικὸς κύκλος), meaning "milky circle", owing
to its appearance.
The Andromeda galaxy is the closest big galaxy to the Milky Way, and one of the few that
can be seen by the naked eye.
It's expected to collide with the Milky Way in about 4.5 billion years and the two will
merge into a single new galaxy called "Milkdromeda".
This shouldn't have any adverse effect on our solar system, but by then the Earth will
already be uninhabitable, as the sun's luminosity will have risen by 35-40%, eliminating all
liquid water on our planet.
The Antennae Galaxies are a pair of galaxies that have spent the past few hundred million
years undergoing a collision, resulting in a starburst phase.
This means the disturbance and compression of gas and dust has lead to an excpetionally
high rate of star formation.
The two streamers of stars being ejected from the galaxies resemble an insect's antennae.
The Black Eye Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 17 million light years away in a relatively isolated
part of space.
It's also known as the "Evil Eye" or "Sleeping Beauty".
The Butterfly Galaxies are a pair of colliding spiral galaxies, Originally nicknamed the
Siamese Twins, Nasa has stopped using that name as of 2020, as well as dropping the "Eskimo
Nebula's" nickname, which is also known as the Clown-faced Nebula, or Lion Nebula.
The Cartwheel Galaxy apparently underwent a direct collision with a smaller galaxy around
200-300 million years ago, creating a shockwave that expanded out from the galaxy's centre.
As the shockwave swept up and compressed gas and dust, it created a starburst that forms
a ring around the galaxy.
The Cartwheel Galaxy is now beginning to retake the form of a spiral galaxy, and it's spiralling
arms look like spokes on a wheel.
The Cigar Galaxy is another starburst galaxy so named for its elongated shape.
Messier 99 is a grand design spiral galaxy.
It is also known as the Coma Pinwheel Galaxy.
The Comet Galaxy is a spiral galaxy currently being ripped to pieces.
It is moving through a galaxy cluster at speeds greater than 2 million miles per hour.
The gravitational forces of the cluster are tearing the Comet Galaxy apart as it moves
through it.
The Condor Galaxy, named after a type of vulture, has two elongated arms that stretch 522,000
light years from end to end, making it one of the largest known spiral galaxies.
It's about five times bigger than the Milky Way.
Cosmos Redshift 7 is approximately 13 billion light years away from Earth, making it one
of the most distant known galaxies.
The Big Bang occurred around 13.8 billion years ago, meaning we see Cosmos Redshift
7 as it existed when the universe was only 800 million years old, making it one of the
oldest known galaxies as well.
It may have formed some of the first stars known to exist in the universe.
Its name is a reference to Christiano Ronaldo.
The Eye of Sauron is one of the nearest galaxies to Earth to contain an actively growing supermassive
black hole, thought to have a mass of 2.5 to 30 million times that of our sun.
It gets its nickname from the Lord of the Rings.
The Fireworks Galaxy looks nice.
Hoag's Object is a ring galaxy.
The ring of blue stars that surround the nucleus is so circular the galaxy has been referred
to as "the most perfect ring galaxy".
The Sombrero Galaxy is a galaxy of uncertain classification.
A prominent dust lane in its outer disk is nearly perpendicular to us, giving it a peculiar
appearance and its name.
The Mice Galaxies are two spiral galaxies that have begun the process of colliding and
merging.
Mayall's Object is thought to be the result of two collided galaxies, that now resembles
a ring galaxy with a tail.
The Needle Galaxy is a spiral galaxy, which, like the Sombrero Galaxy, is viewed edge-on,
giving it a slender appearance.
The Peekaboo Galaxy is a dwarf galaxy so named because of the fast-moving star that obscured
its location from us.
Only in the last 50-100 years has the start in front of the galaxy moved enough for us
to see the galaxy.
It's thought to be only a few billion years old, and being relatively close to Earth at
22 million light years away, it can be studied in greater detail than galaxies in the distant,
early universe; perhaps revealing to us more information about what the universe was like
when galaxies first began to form.
Messier 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, is one of the closest and brightest
barred spiral galaxies in the sky, and is visible with binoculars.
Messier 63, sometimes known as the Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy with approximately
400 billion stars.
The Tadpole Galaxy is a spiral galaxy believed to have been disrupted by a merger with a
smaller galaxy about 100 million years ago, which resulted in a formation of a long tail
of stars, gases and dust.
Just like a real tadpole, it's thought the galaxy will lose its tail as it grows older.
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a grand-design spiral galaxy interacting with dwarf galaxy.
It is easily observed by amateur astronomers, and may even be seen with binoculars, resulting
in the two galaxies becoming one of the most famous interacting galaxy pairs, and one of
the most popular for study of galaxy interactions.
The Baby Boom Galaxy is a starburst galaxy located 12.47 billion light years away, named
for the extreme rate it produces stars.
It is seen producing 4,000 stars every year, that's nearly 11 every day, compared to the
Milky Way's 10 per year.
This makes it the brightest starburst galaxy in the very distant universe.
Because it's so far away, we are observing the Baby Boom Galaxy at a time when the universe
was a little over 1.4 billion years old, meaning this galaxy was creating all these stars when
the universe was still very young.
It may mean we are witness to the formation of one of the most massive galaxies in the
universe.
Caldwell 101 is one of the most similar galaxies to the Milky Way in the local universe.
Currently the furthest man-made object away from Earth is the Voyager 1, launched by NASA
in 1977.
It is travelling at roughly 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 kilometers per hour).
It is currently around 0.0025 light-years away from Earth.
It would take tens of thousands of years for it to reach even the nearest stars.