The Top Ten Most Astonishingly Beautiful Galaxies
Galaxies are remarkably beautiful. They come in so many shapes and sizes, ranging from
elliptical to spirals, from galaxies with only a few thousand stars to ones with 100
trillion. In this video we’re going to be looking
at the top ten most visually stunning galaxies we have discovered so far. Join us, the Flaming Monocle and Astrum on this incredible journey through our Universe.
Firstly, have a look at this. This should give you a little glimpse of the vastness
of these galaxies, and just how many there are out there. If your internet can handle
it, now would be the time to view at 4K resolution. This is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, taken
in 2004. All the beautiful lights and shapes are individual galaxies. 8 years later, the
Hubble team released the same image, but with 8 years more exposure time. Galaxies that
weren’t seen before are suddenly revealed, and scientists predict there are 5,500 galaxies
in this one picture alone, each with billions upon billions of stars. And this is just one
tiny indiscriminate section of the sky. NASA has also started looking at huge galaxy
clusters. Not only are they hugely impressive to look at, but because of their immense gravity,
light warps around them, creating a magnifying effect. Because of this, we can see one of
the oldest galaxies ever discovered, right here in the corner. It’s estimated that
this galaxy was formed only 600 million years after the big bang, and is probably about
30 BILLION light years away. But I’m digressing. You came here for the
most beautiful galaxies, and that is what you will get.
Number 10, M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Located only 28 million light years away, this Sombrero
shaped galaxy is one of the brightest you’ll find in the sky. With an 8 inch telescope,
you will even make out the dark dust ring which circles the outer edge. This ring is
the primary location where a lot of the new stars are formed. Also at the very centre
of this galaxy is thought to be one of the biggest supermassive black holes found in
any of our nearby galaxies. It kind of looks like a giant elliptical galaxy due to its
huge bulge in the centre, but is classified as an unbarred spiral galaxy. This last image
combines infrared with visible light. The galaxy itself is thought to be 50,000 light
years across. Number 9, NGC 3314. While this may look like
two galaxies that have collided, or even one weirdly shaped galaxy, these are in fact two
completely separate galaxies. One galaxy is a lot further in front than the other, but
from our viewpoint, they look like they intersect. The galaxies are between 117 and 140 million
light-years away, and the background galaxy estimated to be 70,000 light years across.
Number 8, M64, the Black Eye Galaxy. This spectacular galaxy has a dark band of light
absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright centre, giving rise to its nicknames of the
"Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. Being roughly 24 million light years away, it is close enough
to see with an amateur telescope. It’s a spiral galaxy but interestingly with two counter-rotating
disks. The inner disk rotates one direction, while the outer disk rotates the opposite
way. The outer disk stretches out 51,000 light years across.
Number 7, M106. This is one of the closest and brightest spiral galaxies to our own,
being roughly 22 million light years away. While spiral galaxies are relatively common,
these pictures reveal some interesting secrets about this galaxy. The supermassive black
hole found in the centre is very active, eating a look more matter than normal. It also has
four spiral arms, but interestingly, as you can see here, two of the arms are made up
of gas and not stars. These gaseous arms are hot are shine bright. The extra arms are thought
to be the result of the black hole spewing out the matter it ate. The galaxy itself is
estimated to be 80,000 light years across. Number 6, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, the Antennae
Galaxies. A cataclysmic event occurring before our very eyes, these are two galaxies that
have collided in a spectacular way. They are called the Antennae galaxies because if we
zoom out a little, we can see that this collision has left two streamers of stars in their battle.
Because of the interaction between these two galaxies, they are said to be in a state of
starburst. These means all the gas within the galaxies are currently forming stars.
Obviously this can’t continue on for a lengthy period of time, and neither can this cosmic
battle. Eventually the two galaxies will merge to form one giant, elliptical galaxy. The
Antennae Galaxies are 45 million light years away and from end to end of each tail is a
massive 500,000 light years! Number 5, M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. One of
the best known galaxies in the sky, it can be seen with binoculars due to the fact it’s
only about 23 million years away. This bulge to the side is in fact an interacting galaxy,
which appears to be just behind its bigger companion. Found at the nucleus of M51, you
can see what is thought to be a dust cloud in the shape of a man, silhouetted by the
nucleus of the galaxy. The colours in the image are the most striking. The pink and
red is the star forming regions, the blue is bright star clusters, and the darkest parts
are where huge dust cloud don’t allow light to pass through. In this image, we are looking
at the near infrared, with the star light removed. So what you’re looking at here
is just the dust structures of the galaxy. This galaxy is roughly 60,000 light years
across. Number 4, UGC 10214, the Tadpole Galaxy. A
very peculiar looking galaxy, with a tail which stretches a massive 280,000 light years
across, the Tadpole galaxy is the result of a hit and run collision. Zooming in on the
main section of the galaxy, you can see the very blue culprit hiding behind the victim.
As the galaxy gets older, the tail will shrink in size, and may even become its own very
small, satellite galaxy. Interestingly, and partially by coincidence, this image is thought
to have more galaxies in it than the Ultra Deep Field we showed at the beginning of the
video. It has over 6,000 galaxies in the background, yet it only took 1/12th of the exposure time
to create the image. But like the Ultra Deep Field image, these galaxies are some of the
oldest that we know of. The Tadpole galaxy is found 420 million light years away, so
you won’t get much luck seeing that through your binoculars!
Number 3, Arp 273, the Rose Galaxies. You can’t find a more perfectly shaped coincidence.
These galaxies, with their stunning colours and beautiful shape, are like finding nature’s
hidden Easter egg. This pair is found 300 million light years away and is believed to
be the result of the smaller UGC 1813 passing through the bigger UGC 1810. The stretching
and pulling caused by gravitational effects mean both galaxies are very irregularly shaped,
but they will eventually return to normal. Interactions like this and in the previous
collisions we’ve already looked at always lead to great outbursts of star formations.
And you may not have noticed, but interestingly there is also what appears to be a mini spiral
caught up in the arm of UGC 1810. Perhaps a galaxy within a galaxy?
Number 2, M31, Andromeda Galaxy. This is Alex’s favourite view in the sky, as it can be seen
with the naked eye if you are away from light pollution. When you think, ‘wow, that is
a galaxy, it’s 2.5 light years away, and it’s got one trillion stars’, it’s pretty
mind blowing. As far as galaxies go, it is big - 220,000 light years across - and it’s
estimated to have twice as many stars as our own galaxy. And talking of stars, look at
this. It’s the biggest mosaic Hubble has ever created. And what is just breath-taking
is the vastness of this galaxy, and how its individual stars can be resolved. As we approach
the galactic core, we can see how the density of stars increases, until all you can see…
is light. We also have near infrared images of the galaxy too, showing off the dust structure
of the galaxy. Number 1, and in our very biased opinion,
the Milky Way galaxy. Our home galaxy. This view might encourage anyone to become an amateur
astronomy photographer! Astronomers believe our Galaxy is about 120,000 light years across
with about 200-400 billion stars. Sadly, we don’t know what our Galaxy looks like from
the outside due to our perspective of actually being in the galaxy. We’d need a really
long selfie stick for that. But we are sure that we are a spiral galaxy and that we might
look something like this. Now in this panoramic we can see a 360 degree view of the Milky
Way from our perspective on Earth. To me, this picture is incredible. We can see the
disk like shape of the galaxy. We can see huge red Nebulae and dust clouds. We can focus
in on the galactic centre, a giant mass of stars. We can also see some of the satellite
galaxies of the Milky Way. Here are two of the biggest ones, the Large and Small Magellanic
clouds. The Milky Way actually has quite a number of orbiting dwarf galaxies, possibly
up to 20. It has become more and more accepted that this is quite common of larger galaxies
to have these satellites. If we zoom out from the Milky Way and look at our local group,
you’ll see Andromeda also has a lot of satellite galaxies. And while we’re here, let’s
just keep zooming out to appreciate the scale of our universe. Here is the Virgo Supercluster
of galaxies, zoom out again and we see the Local Superclusters. Zoom out once more and
we have the observable universe. Now think about this. Each one of these dots is a Supercluster
of galaxies, each with their own local groups, with their own galaxies, billions upon billions
of stars, and each star most likely having planets orbiting them. To me, that is one
of the biggest beauties of space. It’s incomprehensible. Thank you so much for watching this far and
travelling with us on this journey through some of the highlights of our Universe. If
you’d like to see more of this, drop a like! If you think your friends might enjoy this,
sharing would go a long way for us too. You can also check out my channel here where I do gaming videos and be sure to subscribe to
Astrum. Thanks for watching and see you next time!
