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| Amazing Galaxies In The Universe |
We all are aware that our Universe is both incredible and massive. We all have read the definition of a galaxy in childhood, let me recall it, A galaxy is a massive system full of stars, planets, dust, and gas. They all gravitationally romp together. Our solar system belongs to the Milky Way galaxy. It is estimated that the milky way galaxy has approximately 100 billion stars. Also, there are about two trillion galaxies approximately in our entire Universe. Surprised!. Here is the list of Top 20 Most Amazing Galaxies In The Universe
AMAZING GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE
1.THE BLACK EYE GALAXY(M64)
The Black Eye Galaxy is also called Evil Eye Galaxy and designated Messier 64, M64, or NGC 4826 is a relatively isolated spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices. It was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier in 1780. A dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus gave rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes.
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| Galaxies In The Universe |
2.THE ANTENNAE GALAXIES(NGC 4038)
The Antennae Galaxies, also known as NGC 4038/NGC 4039, are a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus. They are currently going through a starburst phase, in which the collision of clouds of gas and dust, with entangled magnetic fields, causes rapid star formation. They were discovered by William Herschel in 1785.
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| Galaxies In Universe |
3.THE BUTTERFLY GALAXY(NGC 4567)
NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 nicknamed the Siamese Twins or the Butterfly Galaxies) are a set of unbarred spiral galaxies about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. They were both discovered by William Herschel in 1784. They are part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Only one supernova (SN 2004cc) has been observed in the Siamese Twins.
These galaxies are in the process of colliding and merging with each other, as studies of their distributions of neutral and molecular hydrogen show, with the highest star-formation activity in the part where they overlap. However, the system is still in an early phase of the interaction. They were named "Siamese Twins" because they appear to be connected.
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| Galaxies Of Universe |
4.THE CARTWHEEL GALAXY(ES0 350)
The Cartwheel Galaxy IS also known as ESO 350-40 or PGC 2248. It is a lenticular galaxy and ring galaxy about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. It is an estimated 150,000 light-years diameter, and has a mass of about 2.9–4.8 × 109 solar masses; its outer ring has a circular velocity of 217 km/s.
It was discovered by Fritz Zwicky in 1941. Zwicky considered his discovery to be "one of the most complicated structures awaiting its explanation on the basis of stellar dynamics. An estimation of the galaxy's span resulted in a conclusion of 150,000 light-years, which is slightly smaller than the Milky Way.
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| Galaxies In The Universe |
5.THE CIGAR GALAXY(NGC 3034)
Messier 82 is also known as NGC 3034, the Cigar Galaxy or M82. It is a starburst galaxy approximately 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. A member of the M81 Group, it is about five times more luminous than the whole Milky Way and has a center one hundred times more luminous than our galaxy's center. The starburst activity is thought to have been triggered by interaction with neighboring galaxy M81. As the closest starburst galaxy to Earth, M82 is the prototypical example of this galaxy type. SN 2014J, a Type Ia supernova, was discovered in the galaxy on 21 January 2014. In 2014, in studying M82, scientists discovered the brightest pulsar yet known, designated M82 X-2.
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| Amazing Galaxies In The Universe |
6.THE CIRCINUS GALAXY(ESO 97-G13)
The Circinus Galaxy (ESO 97-G13) is a Seyfert galaxy in the constellation of Circinus. It is located 4 degrees below the Galactic plane, and, at a distance of 4.0 Mpc (13 Mly), and is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way. The galaxy is undergoing tumultuous changes, as rings of gas are likely being ejected from the galaxy. Its outermost ring is 1400 light-years across while the inner ring is 260 light-years across. Although the Circinus galaxy can be seen using a small telescope, it was not noticed until 1977 because it lies close to the plane of the Milky Way and is obscured by galactic dust. The Circinus Galaxy is a Type II Seyfert galaxy and is one of the closest known active galaxies to the Milky Way, though it is probably slightly farther away than Centaurus A.
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| Galaxies Of Universe |
7.THE COMET GALAXY
The Comet Galaxy, a spiral galaxy located 3.2 billion light-years from Earth, in the galaxy cluster Abell 2667, was found with the Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy has slightly more mass than our Milky Way. It was detected on 2 March 2007.
This unique spiral galaxy, which is situated 3.2 billion light-years from the Earth, has an extended stream of bright blue knots and diffuse wisps of young stars. It rushes at 3.5 million km/h through the cluster Abell 2667 and therefore, like a comet, shows a tail, with a length of 600,000 light-years.
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| Amazing Galaxies In Universe |
8.THE COSMOS REDSHIFT 7 GALAXY(CR7)
Cosmos Redshift 7 is also known as COSMOS Redshift 7, Galaxy Cosmos Redshift 7, Galaxy CR7 or CR7) is a high-redshift Lyman-alpha emitter galaxy. At a redshift z = 6.6, the galaxy is observed as it was about 800 million years after the Big Bang, during the epoch of reionization. With a light travel time of 12.9 billion years, it is one of the oldest, most distant galaxies known.
CR7 shows some of the expected signatures of Population III stars i.e. the first generation of stars produced during early galaxy formation. These signatures were detected in a bright pocket of blue stars; the rest of the galaxy contains redder Population II stars.
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| Amazing Galaxies In The Universe |
9.THE EYE OF SAURON(NGC 4151)
NGC 4151 is an intermediate spiral Seyfert galaxy with a weak inner ring structure located 19 megaparsecs (62 million light-years) from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy was first mentioned by William Herschel on March 17, 1787; it was one of the two Seyfert galaxies described in the paper which defined the term. It is one of the nearest galaxies to Earth to contain an actively growing supermassive black hole; it was speculated that the nucleus may host a binary black hole, with about 40 million and about 10 million solar masses respectively, orbiting with a 15.8-year period. This is, however, still a matter of active debate. Some astronomers nickname it the "Eye of Sauron" from its appearance.
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| Galaxies In The Milkyway |
10.THE FIREWORKS GALAXY(NGC 6946)
NGC 6946 also known as the Fireworks Galaxy is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs similar to the distance of M101 (NGC 5457) in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group. but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.
Discovered by William Herschel on 9 September 1798, this well-studied galaxy has a diameter of approximately 40,000 light-years, about one-third of the Milky Way's size, and it contains roughly half the number of stars as the Milky Way. The galaxy is heavily obscured by interstellar matter as it lies quite close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way. Due to its prodigious star formation, it has been classified as an active starburst galaxy.
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| Image Source: Wikimedia |
11.THE HOCKET STICK GALAXY(NGC 4656)
NGC 4656/57 is a highly warped barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici and is sometimes informally called the Hockey Stick Galaxies or the Crowbar Galaxy. The galaxy is a member of the NGC 4631 Group. A Luminous Blue Variable in "super-outburst" was discovered in NGC 4656/57 on March 21, 2005.
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| Galaxies In The Universe |
12.THE RING GALAXY(HOAG'S OBJECT)
Hoag's Object is a non-typical galaxy of the type known as a ring galaxy. The galaxy is named after Arthur Hoag who discovered it in 1950 and identified it as either a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy with eight billion stars, spanning roughly 100,000 light-years.
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| Galaxies at Universe |
13.THE LINDSAY SHAPLEY RING(AM 0644-741)
AM 0644-741, also known as the Lindsay-Shapley Ring, is an unbarred lenticular galaxy, and a ring galaxy, which is 300 million light-years away in the southern constellation Volans. The yellowish nucleus was once the center of a normal spiral galaxy, and the ring which currently surrounds the center is 150,000 light-years in diameter. The ring is theorized to have formed by a collision with another galaxy, which triggered a gravitational disruption that caused dust in the galaxy to condense and form stars, which forced it to then expand away from the galaxy and create a ring.
The ring is a region of rampant star formation dominated by young, massive, hot blue stars. The pink regions along the ring are rarefied clouds of glowing hydrogen gas that is fluorescing as it is bombarded with strong ultraviolet light from the blue stars. Galactic simulation models suggest that the ring of AM 0644-741 will continue to expand for about another 300 million years, after which it will begin to disintegrate.
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| Galaxies In The Universe |
14.THE CLADWELL 43(NGC 7814)
NGC 7814 is also known as UGC 8 or Caldwell 43. It is a spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The galaxy is seen edge-on from Earth. It is sometimes referred to as "the little sombrero", a miniature version of Messier 104. The starfield behind NGC 7814 is known for its density of faint, remote galaxies as can be seen in the image here – in the same vein as the Hubble Deep Field.
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| Galaxies In Universe |
15.THE MEDUSA MERGER(NGC 4194)
NGC 4194, the Medusa merger, is a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Ursa Major. A region of extreme star formation 500 ly (150 pc) across exists in the center of the Eye of Medusa, the central gas-rich region.
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| Galaxies in the Universe |
16.THE MICE GALAXY(NGC 4676)
NGC 4676, or the Mice Galaxies, are two spiral galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices. About 290 million light-years away, they began the process of colliding and merging. Their name refers to the long tails produced by tidal action—the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy—known here as a galactic tide. It is a possibility that both galaxies, which are members of the Coma cluster, have experienced a collision, and will continue colliding until they coalesce.
The galaxies were photographed in 2002 by the Hubble Space Telescope. In the background of the Mice Galaxies, there are at least 3200 galaxies, at distances up to 13 billion light-years.
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| Amazing Galaxies In The Universe |
18.THE MATALL'S OBJECT GALAXY( ARP 148)
Mayall's Object is also classified under the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 148. It is the result of two colliding galaxies located 500 million light-years away within the constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered by American astronomer Nicholas U. Mayall of the Lick Observatory on 13 March 1940, using the Crossley reflector. When first discovered, Mayall's Object was described as a peculiar nebula, shaped like a question mark. Originally theorized to represent a galaxy reacting with the intergalactic medium, it is now thought to represent the collision of two galaxies, resulting in a new object consisting of a ring-shaped galaxy with a tail emerging from it. It is thought that the collision between the two galaxies created a shockwave that initially drew matter into the center which then formed the ring.
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| Galaxies In The Milkyway |
19.THE NEEDLE GALAXY(NGC 4565)
NGC 4565 is also known as the Needle Galaxy or Caldwell 38. It is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It lies close to the North Galactic Pole and has a visual magnitude of approximately 10. It is known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile. First recorded in 1785 by William Herschel, it is a prominent example of an edge-on spiral galaxy.
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| Amazing Galaxies In The Universe |
20.SUNFLOWER GALAXY(NGC 5055)
Messier 63 or M63, also known as NGC 5055 or the seldom-used Sunflower Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. M63 was first discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain then later verified by his colleague Charles Messier on June 14, 1779. The galaxy became listed as object 63 in the Messier Catalogue. In the mid-19th century, Anglo-Irish astronomer Lord Rosse identified spiral structures within the galaxy, making this one of the first galaxies in which such structure was identified.
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| Image Source: Wikimedia |
Finally, This is the list of Top 20 Most Amazing Galaxies In The Universe. Hope You Like It. Do Post Your Comments.