IC 1101 - The Largest Galaxy Ever Found

Galaxies. The Universe is littered with them. They have speckled the vast darkness of intergalactic space with points of light for 13-billion years now, giving birth to numerous twinkly stars and fleeting planets along the way.

Galaxies come in all shapes and sizes. Some are large, some are small, some are inconceivably bright, while others fade into the background.

But one galaxy stands apart from the pack: IC 1101

Find out more about the largest galaxy in the universe, here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/ic-1101-the-largest-galaxy-ever-found/

Image Credit: NASA

Galaxy Classifications: From Dwarfs to Spirals and Beyond

Surprisingly, over the course of most of humanity"s existence, we had no idea that other galaxies even existed. All we could see was our own little corner of the universe. It wasn"t until the early 1900"s that the nature of the so-called "Andromeda nebula" was discerned. Edwin Hubble settled the galaxy vs. nebula debate in 1925, and it was finally revealed that this "nebula" was actually a galaxy containing some 400 billion stars and not simply an extension of our own galaxy. Almost 100 years later, our reality (and relative insignificance) is well known, as we are now aware of the fact that the universe contains several BILLION large galaxies, many of which are similar to our own (current estimates guess that there are 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the Universe). With that revelation, we"ve learned that galaxies come in all shapes and sizes too. "So what other kinds of galaxies are there," you might ask? Here are the main types:

To learn about all the galaxy types, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/galaxy-classifications-from-dwarfs-to-spirals-and-beyond/

Image source:
http://qproject.net/Universe/281236_534286593250951_619997205_n.jpg