30 Of The Most Mesmerizing Galaxies Captured On Telescope – Part 1

Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” I like to think of myself as someone who always seeks beauty in life, no matter the circumstances. What could be more captivating and enchanting than a night sky filled with stars?

Launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed countless wonders in the universe. Here are some of the most striking cosmic objects it has uncovered:

1. Hoag’s Object

Hoag’s Object is a ring galaxy located in the constellation Serpens Caput. It is known for its unusual structure and is either a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy. This galaxy has roughly eight billion stars and spans about 120,000 light-years across.

2. W2246-0526

W2246-0526 is the most luminous galaxy ever discovered, currently consuming at least three smaller galaxies. This galactic “cannibalism” likely contributes to its extraordinary brightness.

3. Sombrero Galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy is a distinctive galaxy situated at the border of the constellations Virgo and Corvus. It is about 28 million light-years away from Earth and has a unique appearance that makes it stand out.

Galaxies vary greatly in age, with most being between 10 billion and 13.6 billion years old. Some are almost as old as the universe itself, which is approximately 13.8 billion years old. The earliest galaxies formed when the universe was only around a billion years old, emerging from regions with slightly higher density due to cosmic inflation.

Galaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest galaxies can contain trillions of stars and extend over a million light-years, while the smallest might have only a few thousand stars and span just a few hundred light-years. Most large galaxies also harbor supermassive black holes at their centers, some with masses billions of times greater than the Sun.

4. Whirlpool Galaxy

Also known as Messier 51a or NGC 5194, the Whirlpool Galaxy is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was the first galaxy classified as a spiral galaxy.

5. Phantom Galaxy (Messier 74)

The Phantom Galaxy, or Messier 74, is a spiral galaxy situated in the constellation Pisces. It is smaller than our Milky Way galaxy.

6. Large Magellanic Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a spiral satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, it is visible to the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere, between the constellations Dorado and Mensa.

Before the 20th century, other galaxies were not recognized as such; they were classified as “nebulae” due to their fuzzy appearance. This changed in the 1920s when astronomer Edwin Hubble demonstrated that the Andromeda “nebula” was actually a galaxy of its own. Andromeda, the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way, is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere.

7. The Black Eye Galaxy

The Black Eye Galaxy is a relatively isolated spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.

8. Galaxy NGC 6753

Galaxy NGC 6753, situated 150 million light-years from Earth, is one of only two known spiral galaxies that are large and close enough for detailed observation of its structure.

9. Galaxy NGC 4696

NGC 4696 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Centaurus. It features a supermassive black hole that exhibits periodic activity every 5 to 10 million years.

In 1936, Edwin Hubble classified galaxies into four main types: spiral, lenticular, elliptical, and irregular.

• Spiral Galaxies

More than two-thirds of observed galaxies are spiral galaxies, characterized by a flat, spinning disk with a central bulge and spiral arms.

• Elliptical Galaxies

Elliptical galaxies contain many older stars and little dust or interstellar matter. Their stars orbit the galactic center in more random directions. The largest elliptical galaxies can contain up to a trillion stars and span two million light-years.

• Lenticular Galaxies

Lenticular galaxies, like the Sombrero Galaxy, have a thin, rotating disk of stars and a central bulge but lack spiral arms. They are similar to elliptical galaxies in having minimal dust and interstellar matter and are more common in densely populated regions of space.

• Irregular Galaxies

Irregular galaxies, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, do not have a distinct shape and often appear misshapen due to gravitational interactions with nearby galaxies. They are rich in gas and dust, making them excellent sites for new star formation.

10. Galaxy NGC 4388

NGC 4388 is an active spiral galaxy located 57 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.