List of galaxies
There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in all of the observable universe.
On the order of 100,000 galaxies make up the Local Supercluster, and about 51 galaxies are in the Local Group.
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 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.
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.| Image | Galaxy | Constellation | Origin of name | Notes |
| Alcyoneus | Lynx | A low-exitation, Fanaroff and Riley Class II radio galaxy, one of the largest discovered. | ||
| Andromeda I | Andromeda | Andromeda I was named because the galaxy is in the constellation Andromeda | Andromeda I is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy about 2.40 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. Andromeda I is part of the local group of galaxies and a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy. It is roughly 3.5 degrees south and slightly east of M31. As of 2005, it is the closest known dSph companion to M31 at an estimated projected distance of ~40 kpc or ~150,000 light-years. | |
| Andromeda Galaxy | Andromeda | Andromeda, which is shortened from "Andromeda Galaxy", gets its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda. | Andromeda is the closest big galaxy to the Milky Way and is expected to collide with the Milky Way around 4.5 billion years from now. The two will eventually merge into a single new galaxy called Milkdromeda According to simulations, this object would probably be a giant elliptical galaxy, but with a centre showing less stellar density than current elliptical galaxies. | |
| Ambartsumian's Knot | Ursa Major | Appearance is similar to Ambartsumian's knot | NGC 3561, also known as Arp 105, is a pair of interacting galaxies NGC 3561A and NGC 3561B within the galaxy cluster Abell 1185 in Ursa Major. It was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel on 30 March 1827. Its common name is "the Guitar" and contains a small tidal dwarf galaxy known as Ambartsumian's Knot that is believed to be the remnant of the extensive tidal tail pulled out of one of the galaxies. | |
| Antennae Galaxies | Corvus | Appearance is similar to an insect's antennae. | Two colliding galaxies | |
| Backward Galaxy | Centaurus | It appears to rotate backwards, as the tips of the spiral arms point in the direction of rotation. | ||
| Barnard's Galaxy | Named after Edward Emerson Barnard. | |||
| Bear Paw Galaxy | Lynx | It resembles the appearance of a bear's claw. | Also known as "Bear Claw Galaxy." | |
| Black Eye Galaxy | Coma Berenices | It has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. | Also known as "Sleeping Beauty Galaxy." | |
| Blinking Galaxy | Serpens | Its difficulty of viewing in a small telescope and tendency to go in and out of view. | - | |
| Bode's Galaxy | Ursa Major | Named for Johann Elert Bode who discovered this galaxy in 1774. | Also known as Messier 81. The largest galaxy in the M81 Group. It harbors a supermassive black hole 70 million times the mass of the Sun. | |
| Butterfly Galaxies | Virgo | Looks are similar to a butterfly. | ||
| Cartwheel Galaxy | Sculptor | Its visual appearance is similar to that of a spoked cartwheel. | The largest in the Cartwheel Galaxy group, made up of four spiral galaxies | |
| Cigar Galaxy | Ursa Major | Appears similar in shape to a cigar. | Also known as Messier 82 or M82 | |
| Circinus Galaxy | Circinus | Named after the constellation it is located in. | ||
| Cocoon Galaxy | Canes Venatici | Its resemblance in shape to a cocoon | ||
| Coma Pinwheel Galaxy | Coma Berenices | Named after its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy and its location in the Coma Berenices constellation. | Also known as Messier 99 or M99 | |
| Comet Galaxy | Sculptor | This galaxy is named after its unusual appearance, looking like a comet. | The comet effect is caused by tidal stripping by its galaxy cluster, Abell 2667. | |
| Condor Galaxy | Pavo | Named after a condor, a type of vulture that is one of the largest flying birds. | The largest known spiral galaxy, it has a diameter of over. It is tidally disturbed by the smaller lenticular galaxy IC 4970. | |
| Sextans | The name of this galaxy is based on a Redshift measurement of nearly 7. | Galaxy Cosmos Redshift 7 is reported to be the brightest of distant galaxies and to contain some of the earliest first stars that produced the chemical elements needed for the later formation of planets and life as we know it. | ||
| Dusty Hand Galaxy | Camelopardalis | Named after the dust lanes and spiral arms of the galaxy. | ||
| Eye of God | Eridanus | Named after its structural appearance | A prototype for multi-arm spiral galaxies | |
| Eye of Sauron | Canes Venatici | Due to its resemblance to the Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. | ||
| Fireworks Galaxy | Cygnus and Cepheus | Due to its bright and spotty appearance | Active starburst galaxy | |
| Fried Egg Galaxy | Pegasus | Due to its similar appearance to a fried egg | - | |
| Godzilla Galaxy | Perseus | Its extremely large size | - | |
| Helix Galaxy | Ursa Major | Its shape resembles a helix | - | |
| Grasshopper | Lynx | Named after its appearance to a grasshopper | Two colliding galaxies | |
| Hidden Galaxy | Camelopardalis | The difficulty in observing this object makes it 'hidden' though it can readily be detected even with binoculars. | ||
| Hockey Stick Galaxies | Canes Venatici | Its elongated and curved appearance resembles a hockey stick. | Also known as Crowbar Galaxy | |
| Hoag's Object | Serpens Caput | This is named after Art Hoag, who discovered this ring galaxy. | It is of the subtype Hoag-type galaxy, and may in fact be a polar-ring galaxy with the ring in the plane of rotation of the central object. | |
| Knife Edge Galaxy | Draco | Named after its thin shape, similar to knife's edge. | - | |
| Large Magellanic Cloud | Dorado/Mensa | Named after Ferdinand Magellan | This is the fourth-largest galaxy in the Local Group, and forms a pair with the SMC, and from recent research, may not be part of the Milky Way system of satellites at all. | |
| Lindsay-Shapley Ring | Volans | Named after its discoverer, Eric Lindsay, his professor Harlow Shapley, and its nature as a ring galaxy. | The ring is the result of collision with another galaxy | |
| Little Sombrero Galaxy | Pegasus | Named after its similarity to the Sombrero Galaxy. | ||
| Malin 1 | Coma Berenices | Discovered and named by David Malin. | ||
| Meathook Galaxy | Volans | After its appearance resembling a meathook. | - | |
| Medusa Merger | Ursa Major | Ejected dust from the merging galaxies is said to look like the snakes that the Gorgon Medusa from Greek mythology had on her head. | ||
| Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy | Sculptor | Similar to the Sculpture Galaxies | Also known as Sculptor Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, and formerly as the Sculptor System | |
| Mice Galaxies | Coma Berenices | Appearance is similar to a mouse. | ||
| Small Magellanic Cloud | Tucana | Named after Ferdinand Magellan | This forms a pair with the LMC, and from recent research, may not be part of the Milky Way system of satellites at all. | |
| Mayall's Object | Ursa Major | This is named after Nicholas Mayall, of the Lick Observatory, who discovered it. | Also called VV 32 and Arp 148, this is a very peculiar looking object, and is likely to be not one galaxy, but two galaxies undergoing a collision. Event in images is a spindle shape and a ring shape. | |
| Milky Way | Sagittarius | The appearance from Earth of the galaxy—a band of light | The galaxy containing the Sun and its Solar System, and therefore Earth. | |
| Needle Galaxy | Coma Berenices | Named due to its slender appearance. | Also known as Caldwell 38 | |
| Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte | Cetus | Named for the three astronomers instrumental in its discovery and identification. | ||
| Paramecium Galaxy | Pegasus | Named after its appearance to the organism Paramecium | It is included in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies in the category galaxies with detached segments. | |
| Peekaboo Galaxy | Hydra | Galaxy was hidden behind a relatively fast-moving foreground star and became observable when the star moved aside. | Galaxy, relatively nearby, is considered one of the most metal-poor, least chemically enriched, and seemingly primordial, galaxies known. | |
| Pinwheel Galaxy | Ursa Major | Similar in appearance to a pinwheel. | Also known as Messier 101 or M101 | |
| Porphyrion | Draco | |||
| Porpoise Galaxy | Hydra | Its appearance resembles a porpoise | Also known as the Penguin Galaxy | |
| Sculptor Galaxy | Sculptor | Named after its location in the Sculptor Constellation. Also called the Silver Dollar or Silver Coin Galaxy, because of its light and circular appearance. | Also known as the Silver Coin, Silver Dollar Galaxy or Caldwell 65 | |
| Skyrocket Galaxy | Ursa Major | Its resemblance to a July 4th skyrocket | - | |
| Sombrero Galaxy | Virgo | Similar in appearance to a sombrero. | Also known as Messier Object 104 or M104 | |
| Southern Pinwheel Galaxy | Hydra | Named after its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy and its location in the southern celestial hemisphere. | ||
| Spider Galaxy | Boötes | Named after its appearance of a spider | ||
| Spiderweb Galaxy | Hydra | Its irregular shape and continuous structure resembles a spiderweb. | ||
| Starfish Galaxy | Ophiuchus | Similar in appearance to a starfish. | Merger of 3 galaxies | |
| Sunflower Galaxy | Canes Venatici | Similar in appearance to a sunflower. | ||
| Tadpole Galaxy | Draco | The name comes from the resemblance of the galaxy to a tadpole. | This shape resulted from tidal interaction that drew out a long tidal tail. | |
| Topsy Turvy Galaxy | Reticulum | The disorganized and chaotic appearance makes it look topsy turvy. | - | |
| Triangulum Galaxy | Triangulum | Named after its location within the Triangulum constellation. | ||
| UFO Galaxy | Lynx | Named after its resemblance to a UFO. | - | |
| Whale Galaxy | Canes Venatici | Named after its supposed resemblance to a whale. | - | |
| Whirlpool Galaxy | Canes Venatici | From the whirlpool appearance this gravitationally disturbed galaxy exhibits. |