The Top 5 Galaxies That Look Awesome

darthnava (71) in science • 7 years ago

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.

Image Sources: 1,2,3,4,5,6
Data Sources: 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

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7 years ago by darthnava (71)

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stuntworksinc (56) · 7 years ago

Love this kind of stuff. As an aside....I was looking for a decent DLSR recently as I live in the boonies and get a lot of great sunsets and landscapes that the phone just doesn't do justice too.

I stumbled on a Canon T5i in great shape that had an additional plus. It had been outfitted with an astroprocessor for taking night sky pics.

I live well outside the city so I get dark night and this thing is awesome.I still have a long way to go learning how to use it well for this, but it is fun learning.

$0.57

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darthnava (71) · 7 years ago

Cool! I hope you will post the results of your tinkering with it.

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selimbellagha (29) · 7 years ago

It's a very good post, but I have some facts about The Andromeda Galaxy :

-The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at approximately 100 to 140 kilometres per second.
-While Andromeda is the largest galaxy in the Local Cluster it may not be the most massive. The Milky Way is thought to contain more dark matter, which could make it much more massive.
-There are at least 450 globular clusters orbiting in and around the Andromeda Galaxy. Some of them are among the most densely populated globulars ever seen.
-The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant object you can spot with the naked eye. You need a good spot away from bright lights in order to see it.
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