The Most Beautiful Galaxies

published July 31, 2009

We live on one of 8 official planets that orbit one star. There has been evidence of bacteria on Mars, and potential for life on Jupiter's moon, Europa. The sun is one star out of an approximate 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, each with it's own chance of supporting life. The Milky Way Galaxy is one of an estimated 125 billion galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy supports anywhere from tens of millions to a trillion stars. Turns out there are about 70 sextillion stars in the universe, each with an opportunity to have life. 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 is a number we absolutely cannot comprehend. If you took every grain of sand on earth, multiplied it by ten, the sun would be one of those grains.

Hubble produced this image of a tiny portion of the empty night sky. Each light here is a galaxy with billions of stars. Here is a collection of what I find to be the most beautiful galaxies observed from our planet.

Andromeda Galaxy - We'll start with the closest galaxy to our own. You can actually see this galaxy on a clear night in the constellation with the same name. Once thought as the most massive galaxy in our local group, our own Milky Way is apparently more massive. We're #1!

Antennae Galaxies - This is an awe inspiring galactic collision, similar to what will happen when the Milky Way collides with Andromeda... in about 3 billion years.

AM 0644-741 - This is one of the most gorgeous galaxies, and it's a shame that it has a horrible name that does it no justice. It should have a name like "One Eyed Wall-E Galaxy" or "Gun Barrel Galaxy."

Cartwheel Galaxy - This was once a galaxy similar to our Milky Way. After a collision with a smaller galaxy, the shock created the ring. You can see the gravitational pull trying to pull the ring back in.

"The Mice" Galaxies - NGC 4676, nicknamed "The Mice," will keep colliding and eventually merge into one.

Tadpole Galaxy - Gravitational pull from another galaxy disrupted this spiral galaxy, forming this cool tail. It looks like a huge intergalactic battle axe, or a throwing sharp weapon that Xena would use.

NGC 1079 - If a galaxy could look pissed off, this one does it perfectly. One of this galaxy's prominent features is the red bubble coming from it's core.

NGC 1316 - This galaxy is not a spiral galaxy that we're accustomed to seeing. This is a lenticular galaxy, and unfortunately also needs a name. I propose "Easter Egg Galaxy."

Pinwheel Galaxy - We get a glorious head on shot of this galaxy, said to be about twice the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Sombrero Galaxy - This gorgeous galaxy has several intriguing features, like the super massive black hole, and the black dust ring. This galaxy is the cover shot of older editions of the "" book by Giles Sparrow (where I get all my astronomy info from). I recommend everyone get this book.

Whirlpool Galaxy - The interaction of the this galaxy and it's smaller companion (NGC 5195), is believed to be the reason for it's prounounced wings.

Silverado Galaxy - The reason I put this seemingly unimpressive galaxy in here is that it is very similar to our Milky Way galaxy in size and appearance. Our own galaxy could look a lot like this to outside observers.

NCG-3314a and b - No, this is not another galactic collision. This is just an awesome sight of two overlapping galaxies from our point of view.

Bode's Galaxy (Messier 81)- People have called this galaxy a lesson in perfection when it comes to spiral galaxies.

NGC 4622 - Not only is this a beautiful galaxy, there is something really strange about it. It spirals the wrong way! The tips of the spiral lead instead of follow. Apparently the astronomy community finds this hard to accept.

Cigar Galaxy - This is an example of a 'starburst' galaxy. It has a high rate of star formation and is 5 times brighter than our own entire Milky Way Galaxy.

Black Eye Galaxy - You can see all the newly formed blue stars on the outer portions of this galaxy. Also, despite rotating clockwise, the outer ring of the galaxy rotates backwards - probably the result of a collision with a different galaxy a long time ago.

NGC 2787 - This is one of my absolute favorite galaxies in terms of pure aesthetics, applying the less is more theory. This is another lenticular galaxy, which means it's shaped like a contact lens.

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