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The observable universe contains as many as an estimated 2 trillion galaxies [36] [37] [38] and, overall, as many as an estimated 10 24 stars [39] [40] – more stars (and, potentially, Earth-like planets) than all the grains of beach sand on planet Earth. [41] [42] [43] Other estimates are in the hundreds of billions rather than trillions.
Size (left) and distance (right) of a few well-known galaxies put to scale. The following is a list of notable galaxies.. There are about 51 galaxies in the Local Group (see list of nearest galaxies 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.
This was the first noted cluster of "nebulae" that would become galaxies. The first redshifts to galaxies in the cluster were measured in the 1910s. Galaxies were not identified as such until the 1920s. The distance to the Virgo Cluster would have to wait until the 1930s. [21] Mly represents millions of light-years, a measure of distance.
2022 — JWST detects CEERS-93316, a candidate high-redshift galaxy, with an estimated redshift of approximately z = 16.7, corresponding to 235.8 million years [45] after the Big Bang. [46] If confirmed, it is one of the earliest and most distant known galaxies observed. [47]
Groups are the most common structures of galaxies in the universe, comprising at least 50% of the galaxies in the local universe. Groups have a mass range between those of the very large elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies. [5] Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is contained in the Local Group of more than 54 galaxies. [6]
Galaxies are categorised according to their visual morphology as elliptical, [5] spiral, or irregular. [6] The Milky Way is an example of a spiral galaxy. It is estimated that there are between 200 billion [7] (2 × 10 11) to 2 trillion [8] galaxies in the observable universe.
More recently, in November 2020, over 300 million habitable exoplanets are estimated to exist in the Milky Way Galaxy. [172] When compared to other more distant galaxies in the universe, the Milky Way galaxy has a below average amount of neutrino luminosity making our galaxy a "neutrino desert". [173]
Many galaxies are thought to have black holes at their active centers. The Milky Way's central black hole, known as Sagittarius A* , has a mass four million times greater than the Sun. As of March 2016, GN-z11 is the oldest and most distant observed galaxy with a comoving distance of 32 billion light-years from Earth, and observed as it existed ...