Large Magellanic Cloud

The Sombrero Galaxy is a bright, nearly edge-on galaxy famous for its huge central bulge and sharply defined dust lane. Its unusual appearance makes it one of the most iconic galaxies in the sky, and observations suggest it combines features of both a spiral galaxy and a giant elliptical system.

Object class

Peculiar galaxy

Host

Virgo II Groups

Composition

~300–800 billion stars, dust, gas, dark matter

The Milky Way is the barred spiral galaxy that contains the Solar System. One circuit of our system around the galaxy takes about 230 million years, so Earth has completed only about twenty galactic years since it formed.

Object class

Barred spiral galaxy

Composition

~100–400 billion stars, gas, dust, dark matter

Estimated age

~13.6 billion years

Host

Local Group

Centaurus A is the nearest giant active galaxy and one of the strangest-looking galaxies in the sky. A dark dust lane cuts across its bright body, probably left by a merger between a giant elliptical galaxy and a smaller spiral galaxy, while a supermassive black hole at its core powers intense radio and X-ray emission.

Object class

Peculiar active galaxy

Host

Centaurus A / M83 Group

Composition

Hundreds of billions of stars, dust, gas, dark matter