The following is a list of notable

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

. There are about 51 galaxies in the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way. It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of . It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape: the Milky Way and its satellites form ...

(see list of nearest galaxies for a complete list), on the order of 100,000 in the

Local Supercluster The Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is a mass concentration of galaxies containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group, which itself contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, as well as others. At least ...

, and an estimated 100 billion in all of the

observable universe The observable universe is a ball-shaped region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because the electromagnetic radiation from these obj ...

. The discovery of the nature of galaxies as distinct from other

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

e (

interstellar cloud An interstellar cloud is generally an accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust in our and other galaxies. Put differently, an interstellar cloud is a denser-than-average region of the interstellar medium, the matter and radiation that exists in ...

s) was made in the 1920s. The first attempts at systematic catalogues of galaxies were made in the 1960s, with the Catalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies listing 29,418 galaxies and galaxy clusters, and with the Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies, a putatively complete list of galaxies with photographic magnitude above 15, listing 30,642. In the 1980s, the Lyons Groups of Galaxies listed 485 galaxy groups with 3,933 member galaxies.

Galaxy Zoo Galaxy Zoo is a crowdsourced astronomy project which invites people to assist in the morphological classification of large numbers of galaxies. It is an example of citizen science as it enlists the help of members of the public to help in scie ...

is a project aiming at a more comprehensive list: launched in July 2007, it has classified over one million galaxy images from The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, The Hubble Space Telescope and the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. There is no universal naming convention for galaxies, as they are mostly catalogued before it is established whether the object is or isn't a galaxy. Mostly they are identified by their celestial coordinates together with the name of the observing project (

HUDF The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) is a deep-field image of a small region of space in the constellation Fornax, containing an estimated 10,000 galaxies. The original data for the image was collected by the Hubble Space Telescope from Septemb ...

, SDSS, 3C, CFHQS, NGC/IC, etc.) __TOC__

Named galaxies

This is a list of galaxies that are well known by something other than an entry in a catalog or list, or a set of coordinates, or a systematic designation.

Naked-eye galaxies

This is a list of galaxies that are visible to the naked eye, for at the very least, keen-eyed observers in a very dark-sky environment that is high in altitude, during clear and stable weather. *

Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy The Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph), also known as the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (Sgr dE or Sag DEG), is an elliptical loop-shaped satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It contains four globular clusters ...

is not listed, because it is not discernible as being a separate galaxy in the sky.

Observational firsts

Prototypes

This is a list of galaxies that became prototypes for a class of galaxies.

Closest and most distant-known galaxies by type

Closest galaxies

Most distant galaxies

Timeline notes

MACS0647-JD __NOTOC__ MACS0647-JD is a galaxy with a redshift of about ''z'' = 10.7, equivalent to a light travel distance of 13.26 billion light-years (4 billion parsecs). If the distance estimate is correct, it formed about 427 million years after the Big B ...

, discovered in 2012, with z=10.7, does not appear on this list because it has not been confirmed with a spectroscopic redshift. * UDFy-38135539, discovered in 2009, with z=8.6, does not appear on this list because its claimed redshift is disputed. Follow-up observations have failed to replicate the cited redshift measurement. * A1689-zD1, discovered in 2008, with z=7.6, does not appear on this list because it has not been confirmed with a spectroscopic redshift. *

Abell 68 c1 Abell may refer to: People *Abell (surname) *George O. Abell, of the astronomical catalogues fame Places ;United States * Abell, Maryland, a location in St. Mary's County, Maryland * Abell, a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland * Abells Corners, ...

and

Abell 2219 c1 Abell may refer to: People *Abell (surname) *George O. Abell, of the astronomical catalogues fame Places ;United States * Abell, Maryland, a location in St. Mary's County, Maryland * Abell, a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland * Abells Corners, ...

, discovered in 2007, with z=9, do not appear on this list because they have not been confirmed. * IOK4 and IOK5, discovered in 2007, with z=7, do not appear on this list because they have not been confirmed with a spectroscopic redshift. * Abell 1835 IR1916, discovered in 2004, with z=10.0, does not appear on this list because its claimed redshift is disputed. Some follow-up observations have failed to find the object at all. *

STIS 123627+621755 The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) is a spectrograph, also with a camera mode, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. Aerospace engineer Bruce Woodgate of the Goddard Space Flight Center was the principal investigator and creator ...

, discovered in 1999, with z=6.68, does not appear on this list because its redshift was based on an erroneous interpretation of an oxygen emission line as a hydrogen emission line.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

Lab scientists revoke status of space object
*

BR1202-0725 LAE The BR postcode area, also known as the Bromley postcode area,Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) is a group of eight postcode districts in England, within seven post towns. These cover part of south-eastern Greater London, as we ...

, discovered in 1998 at z=5.64 does not appear on the list because it was not definitively pinned.

BR1202-0725 The BR postcode area, also known as the Bromley postcode area,Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) is a group of eight postcode districts in England, within seven post towns. These cover part of south-eastern Greater London, as wel ...

(

QSO 1202-07 QSO may refer to: *Quasi-stellar object or quasar * Queen's Service Order, New Zealand honour * Queensland Symphony Orchestra * The Quantic Soul Orchestra * QSO, a Q code used in commercial and amateur radio communication *The IATA airport code fo ...

) refers to a quasar that the Lyman alpha emitting galaxy is near. The quasar itself lies at z=4.6947 * BR2237-0607 LA1 and BR2237-0607 LA2 were found at z=4.55 while investigating around the quasar BR2237-0607 in 1996. Neither of these appear on the list because they were not definitively pinned down at the time. The quasar itself lies at z=4.558 * Two absorption dropouts in the spectrum of quasar BR 1202-07 (

QSO 1202-0725 QSO may refer to: *Quasi-stellar object or quasar *Queen's Service Order, New Zealand honour *Queensland Symphony Orchestra *The Quantic Soul Orchestra * QSO, a Q code used in commercial and amateur radio communication *The IATA airport code for S ...

, BRI 1202-0725,

BRI1202-07 Brassinosteroid insensitive 1 (BRI1) is the major receptor of the plant hormone brassinosteroid. It plays very important roles in plant development, especially in the control of cell elongation and for the tolerance of environmental stresses. B ...

) were found, one in early 1996, another later in 1996. Neither of these appear on the list because they were not definitively pinned down at the time. The early one was at z=4.38, the later one at z=4.687, the quasar itself lies at z=4.695 * In 1986, a gravitationally lensed galaxy forming a blue arc was found lensed by galaxy cluster

CL 2224-02 CL or cl may refer to: Arts and entertainment * CL (rapper) or Lee Chae-rin (born 1991), singer and rapper, former leader of the K-pop girl group 2NE1 * Creative Loafing, a newspaper publisher Brands and enterprises * Colgate-Palmolive's NY ...

(C12224 in some references). However, its redshift was only determined in 1991, at z=2.237, by which time, it would no longer be the most distant galaxy known. * An absorption drop was discovered in 1985 in the light spectrum of quasar

PKS 1614+051 PKS may refer to: * Pammal K. Sambandam, a 2002 Tamil language comedy film * Państwowa Komunikacja Samochodowa, Polish transport organization * Parkstone railway station, station code * Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity * Parkes Catalogue o ...

at z=3.21 This does not appear on the list because it was not definitively fixed down. At the time, it was claimed to be the first non-QSO galaxy found beyond redshift 3. The quasar itself is at z=3.197 * In 1975,

3C 123 3C may refer to: In astronomy: * 3C, the '' Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources'', an astronomical reference series In business: * Long March 3C, a 2008 Chinese orbital rocket * 3C Records, a record label * 3C (radio), a defunct digital r ...

was incorrectly determined to lie at z=0.637 (actually z=0.218). * From 1964 to 1997, the title of most distant object in the universe was held by a succession of quasars. That list is available at list of quasars. * In 1958, clusters

Cl 0024+1654 CL or cl may refer to: Arts and entertainment * CL (rapper) or Lee Chae-rin (born 1991), singer and rapper, former leader of the K-pop girl group 2NE1 * Creative Loafing, a newspaper publisher Brands and enterprises * Colgate-Palmolive's NYS ...

and

Cl 1447+2619 CL or cl may refer to: Arts and entertainment * CL (rapper) or Lee Chae-rin (born 1991), singer and rapper, former leader of the K-pop girl group 2NE1 * Creative Loafing, a newspaper publisher Brands and enterprises * Colgate-Palmolive's N ...

were estimated to have redshifts of z=0.29 and z=0.35, respectively. However, no galaxy was spectroscopically determined.

Galaxies by brightness and power

Galaxies by mass and density

Galaxies by size

Field galaxies

field galaxy A field galaxy is a galaxy that does not belong to a larger galaxy group or cluster and hence is gravitationally alone. Roughly 80% of all galaxies located within of the Milky Way are in groups or clusters of galaxies. Most low-surface-brightne ...

is a galaxy that does not belong to a larger cluster of galaxies and hence is gravitationally alone.

Interacting galaxies

Galaxy mergers

Galaxies with some other notable feature

Hubble-Space-Telescope-Galaxy-Collection

Notes

References

External links

Wolfram Research Wolfram Research, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include ...

: Scientific Astronomer Documentations �
Brightest Galaxies
* 1956

Catalogue of Galaxy Redshifts Catalog or catalogue may refer to: * Cataloging **'emmy on the 'og **in science and technology ***Library catalog, a catalog of books and other media ****Union catalog, a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of librarie ...

Redshifts and magnitudes of extragalactic nebulae
by

Milton L. Humason Milton La Salle Humason (August 19, 1891 – June 18, 1972) was an American astronomer. He was born in Dodge Center, Minnesota. Biography Humason dropped out of school and had no formal education past the age of 14. Because he loved the m ...

Nicholas U. Mayall Nicholas Ulrich Mayall (May 9, 1906 – January 5, 1993) was an American observational astronomer. After obtaining his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, Mayall worked at the Lick Observatory, where he remained from 1934 to 19 ...

Allan Sandage Allan Rex Sandage (June 18, 1926 – November 13, 2010) was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble cons ...

* 1936 Catalogue of Galaxy Redshifts
The Apparent Radial Velocities of 100 Extra-Galactic Nebulae
by

* 1925 Catalogue of Galaxy Redshifts: by

Vesto Slipher Vesto Melvin Slipher (; November 11, 1875 – November 8, 1969) was an American astronomer who performed the first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies. He was the first to discover that distant galaxies are redshifted, thus providing t ...

* (1917) First Catalogue of Galaxy Redshifts
Nebulae
by

* Interactive Map of the Visible Universe with Galaxies
Deep Space Map
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