Galaxies and Galaxy groups


Other astronomical objects

A galaxy is a vast cosmic system of stars, gas, and dust, all bound together by gravity. These immense structures can contain anything from a few thousand to trillions of stars, forming the fundamental building blocks of the universe.

The Milky Way – home of our solar system

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is a barred spiral galaxy spanning roughly 100,000 light-years. Our solar system lies about 26,000 light-years from the galactic center — just a tiny part of an immense cosmic structure.
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Our solar system resides within one of the Milky Way’s spiral arms. Our galaxy slowly rotates, carrying the Sun along at about 828,000 km/h. One orbit around the galactic center takes roughly 230 million years.

Position of the solar system within the Milky Way galaxy
Our position within the Milky Way (top view)

Since we are located within the Milky Way, a direct side view is impossible. But data from the ESA Gaia mission has made a realistic reconstruction possible.

Reconstructed side view of the Milky Way galaxy
Reconstructed side view of the Milky Way

This reconstruction reveals a thin, slightly warped galactic disk containing our Sun and the stars visible in the night sky.

ESA Video: Position of our solar system in the Milky Way

The Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 31, is the closest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way, around 2.5 million light-years away. It is located in the eponymous constellation Andromeda and is the most distant object that can be observed with the naked eye under good conditions without technical aids. The small galaxy to the left below Andromeda is Messier 110.
The Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangle. It is the second brightest spiral galaxy in the northern night sky after the Andromeda galaxy.
Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 101 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The galaxy is 21 million light-years away from us.
Messier 51 (NGC 5194/5195) ist eine große Spiralgalaxie im Sternbild Jagdhunde. Wegen der Wechselwirkung der beiden NGC-Galaxien wurde M51 auch in Halton Arps Katalog ungewöhnlicher Galaxien aufgenommen.
NGC 3344 is a barred spiral galaxy with extensive star-forming regions in the constellation Leo Minor in the northern sky.
The Edge Galaxy NGC891 lies in the constellation Andromeda.
Messier 64 oder Blackeye-Galaxie bezeichnet ist eine Spiralgalaxie im Sternbild Coma Berenices. Sie besitzt eine große ovale Dunkelwolke nördlich des Kerns.
Messier 102 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco.
The Sunflower Galaxy Messier 63 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici in the northern sky and has a diameter of approximately 50,000 light-years. Unusual and eponymous are the many, clearly visible, nodular condensations in its spiral arms. These are star-forming regions and luminous gas clouds.
NGC 4088 is an unusual spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major, which, due to its distorted appearance, was also included as Arp 18 in the "Atlas of peculiar galaxies".
NGC 3718, also known as Arp 214, is located in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). Its distinctive S-shape is attributed to a gravitational interaction with the neighboring spiral galaxy NGC 3729.
The Cocoon Galaxy ARP269 is an interacting galaxy pair with active star formation regions. The two galaxies are connected by a tidal arm. The center of NGC4490 consists of two separate structures - presumably as a result of a collision of two smaller star clusters. The pair of galaxies is surrounded by diffuse star clouds.
The UFO galaxy NGC 2683 is a spiral galaxy with an active galactic nucleus in the constellation Lynx in the northern sky.
Messier 81 or Bode's Galaxy and the right galaxy Messier 82 or Cigar Galaxy and lie in the constellation Ursa Major.
The galaxies NGC 4536 (left), NGC 4533 (middle) and NGC 4527 (right) are located in the constellation Virgo and have a high star formation rate.
NGC 3226 is an elliptical galaxy with an active nucleus in the constellation Leo. Together with NGC 3227, it forms the interacting galaxy pair Arp 94 or Holm 187.
The spiral galaxy NGC 3169 on the left is about 70 million light-years away and is interacting with the neighboring galaxy NGC 3166. The two galaxies will eventually merge into one.
The arc-shaped galaxies of the Markarjan Chain with the galaxies Messier 84 and Messier 86 at the top left, the galaxy Messier 87 at the top-middle and the two galaxies Messier 89 and Messier 90 on the right are located in the constellation Virgo.
Hickson 44 is a group of galaxies in the constellation Leo around 80 million light-years away that contains a total of four galaxies with the catalog numbers NGC 3185, 3187, 3190 and 3193.
The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628.
The spiral galaxy Messier 106 lies in the constellation Canes Venatici.
The Holmberg 468 galaxy triplet in the constellation Coma Berenices contains the galaxies NGC4725, NGC4712 and NGC4747. The large galaxy NGC 4725 interacts with the neighboring galaxy NGC 4747 at the bottom right of the image and has an extremely massive black hole at its center.
The Draco Triplet includes the galaxies NGC 5981, NGC 5982 and NGC 5985 in the constellation Draco.
Holm 345 is a galaxy group in the constellation Hercules, consisting of several interacting galaxies. It is part of a larger galaxy cluster and lies hundreds of millions of light-years from Earth.
NGC2841 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major in the northern sky.
Galaxy NGC 147 on the left is a dwarf spherical galaxy about 2.58 Mly away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. NGC 147 is a member of the Local Group of galaxies and a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). It forms a physical pair with the near right galaxy NGC 185, another distant satellite of M31.
NGC 7331 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus in the northern sky. The object was discovered on September 6, 1784 by the German-British astronomer Wilhelm Herschel.
The spiral galaxy NGC 7331 on the right and the Stephans Quintet glax group on the left lie in the constellation Pegasus.
Top right: Planetary nebulae "Owl Nebula, Messier 97" and Botton left: "Surfboard Galaxy Messier 108"
Supernova RemnantsGalaxy clusters