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 (see

list of nearest galaxies This is a list of known galaxies within 3.8 megaparsecs (12.4 million light-years) of the Solar System, in ascending order of heliocentric distance, or the distance to the Sun. This encompasses about 50 major Local Group galaxies, and some that ar ...

for a complete list), on the order of 100,000 in the Local Supercluster, 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 ob ...

. 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 the ...

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 The Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies (MCG) or Morfologiceskij Katalog Galaktik, is a Russian catalogue of 30,642 galaxies compiled by Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov Boris Aleksandrovich Vorontsov-Velyaminov (russian: Борис Александ� ...

, 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, 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 in ...

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 UDFy-38135539 (also known as "HUDF.YD3") is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) identifier for a galaxy which was calculated to have a light travel time of 13.1 billion years with a present proper distance of around 30 billion light-years. I ...

, 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 A1689-zD1 is a galaxy in the Virgo constellation. It was a candidate for the most distant and therefore earliest-observed galaxy discovered , based on a photometric redshift. If the redshift, z~7.6, is correct, it would explain why the galaxy' ...

, 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 and Abell 2219 c1, 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, 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, discovered in 1998 at z=5.64 does not appear on the list because it was not definitively pinned. BR1202-0725 ( QSO 1202-07) 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, BRI 1202-0725, BRI1202-07) 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 (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 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 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 and Cl 1447+2619 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

A field galaxy 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
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,

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 ...

* (1917) First Catalogue of Galaxy Redshifts
Nebulae
by

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