
Eighth: ESO 444-46ĮSO 444-46 is the eighth largest known galaxy in the universe with a diameter of 400,000 light-years. UGC 2885 is located 232 million light-years away. Unlike ESO 306-17, which grew to its immense size by absorbing all of the galaxies in its neighborhood, UGC 2885 likely grew from the accretion of vast amounts of hydrogen. Interestingly, UGC 2885 exists in a fairly empty region of space, with no other galaxies located within the vicinity of UGC 2885. Unlike the first four galaxies discussed, UGC 2885 is a spiral galaxy, much like our own Milky Way. The seventh-largest known galaxy is UGC 2885, with a diameter of 463,000 light-years. ESO 306-17 is roughly 500 million light-years away from us. Astronomers believe that ESO 306-17 may have once been one of many galaxies in its area, yet it eventually merged with and absorbed every nearby galaxy, causing it to grow in size and become one of the largest known galaxies in the universe. While most galaxies find themselves within vast clusters of galaxies, ESO 306-17 is alone, with all of the surrounding space being empty. Like the galaxies discussed previously, ESO 306-17 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy, yet there is something that makes this particular galaxy unique. The fourth-largest known galaxy in the universe is ESO 306-17, with a diameter of roughly one million light-years. A2261-BCG is located three billion light-years away from us. The vast majority of large galaxies in the universe have a supermassive black hole at their center, yet for unknown reasons, A2261-BCG does not. A2261-BCG is a rather strange galaxy for one simple fact: it does not contain a supermassive black hole at its center. A2261-BCG is a supergiant elliptical galaxy and is estimated to contain over ten trillion stars. On Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram.A2261-BCG is the third-largest known galaxy in the universe, having a diameter of one million light-years, roughly ten times the size of the Milky Way. Scientists can use the measurements gleaned from Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae to refine our understanding of the rate of expansion of the universe, also known as the Hubble Constant.įollow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews, also keep up with us This galaxy also contains a Type Ia supernova, which is an explosion of a white dwarf star that was gradually accreting matter from a companion star.



As a result, these stars are extremely useful in determining the distance of cosmic objects, which is one of the hardest pieces of information to measure for extragalactic objects." NASA says, "Since the period of Cepheid variable stars is a function of their brightness, scientists can measure how bright these stars appear from Earth and compare it to their actual brightness to calculate their distance. Those stars brighten and dim at regular periods. Scientists used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to image NGC 6956 to study its Cepheid variable stars. While it is quite beautiful, images like these serve a very useful purpose. This galaxy exists 214 million light-years away in the constellation Delphinus. NGC 6956 is a barred spiral galaxy, a common type of spiral galaxy with a bar-shaped structure of stars in its center. It has just captured the blue swirls of a spiral galaxy NGC 6956, shining quite radiantly against an inky black backdrop.
