Gallery: 65 All-Time Great Galaxy Hits

Find the Sombrero Galaxy

Composite of three images is one of the most detailed ever of the Sombrero Galaxy.

Galaxy Cluster X-ray Revealed

The massive radio galaxy PKS 0745-191, for which the cluster is named, appears at the center of this Hubble Space Telescope image. The picture forms the inset in the Suzaku image above.

A Real Whopper: Black Hole Is Most Massive Known

This composite of visible (or optical), radio, and X-ray data reveals the giant elliptical galaxy M87.

Spitzer Telescope Warms Up to Its New Mission

The nearly edge-on galaxy NGC 5746 is partially obscured in visible-light photographs, making accurate classification impossible. This image from the Spitzer Space Telescope reveals the galaxy's true nature, showing a dramatic ring of warm dust surrounding the galaxy's bright nucleus.

Black Hole Creates Eye in Middle of Cosmic Storm

In the Spitzer image of NGC 1097, infrared light with shorter wavelengths is blue, while longer-wavelength light is red.

Nearby Galaxy Is Almost Milky Way Look-alike

This image is an edge-on view of the spiral galaxy NGC 4945, which is thought to look much like the Milky Way, but with a brighter center that harbors a supermassive black hole. Sites of active star formation in the image appear bright pink.

Best UV View Ever of Andromeda Galaxy

This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard NASA's Swift spacecraft. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high (100 arcminutes by 50 arcminutes).

Strange Shapes Seen In Milky Way's Tiny Neighbor

Astronomers obtained this portrait of Barnard’s Galaxy using the Wide Field Imager attached to the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. Also known as NGC 6822, this dwarf irregular galaxy is one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbors.

New Telescope Photographs Edge-on Galaxy

This photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 891 was the "first light" image made by the 32-inch reflecting telescope at the University of Utah's new, $860,000 Willard L. Eccles Observatory, located in southern Utah about 250 miles from the university's Salt Lake City campus. The observatory will be used for research, student education and even public star parties once it is equipped for remote-control operations.

Hubble Spies Galaxy's Big Bulge

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4710 shows a faint, ethereal "X"-shaped bulge at the galaxy's center.