Which Is The Largest Galaxy In The Universe?

Do you think the stargazer and scientists have found the largest galaxy in the universe? How big is the largest galaxy in the universe? Is it bigger than the Andromeda galaxy and Milky Way?

There are many galaxies in this universe which are spiral, elliptic, ring galaxies, and many more. Scientists have now discovered that there is the largest galaxy in our galaxy which is neither the milky way nor the Andromeda galaxy. It is the Alcyoneus galaxy which is 1,60,00,000 light-years in extent breaking all the records in the universe. This galaxy is so big that it can house 100 milky way galaxies in it.

 

No other galaxy including the IC 1101 can be compared to the Alcyoneus galaxy. Since the galaxies have been discovered we all might have thought of it someday which galaxy is the largest? Our little brains in those days would not understand how someone could find the largest galaxy in the universe.

In physical extent, our milky way is 1,30,000 light-years. And Andromeda is twice the size of our milky way which is 2,20,000 light-years. UGC 2885 is known to be the largest spiral galaxy in the universe, spanning 8,32,000 light-years across. The elliptic galaxies are superior in size and especially are in cluster cores. Messier 87 or M87 the Virgo super cluster’s largest galaxy is 9,80,000 light-years. The Virgo supercluster contains the mass group of galaxies including the Virgo cluster and local group which contains our milky way and Andromeda galaxy.

The Brightest Galaxy!!!

The  Phoenix cluster’s brightest galaxy, the central galaxy is 22,00,000 light-years. The largest galaxy cluster, Abell 2029 has the IC 1101 in its core. With six million light-years across, over 100 trillion stars, and a mass of quadrillion suns it was known as the largest galaxy of all. But unfortunately, the universe made something even larger owing to its finite age and presence of dark energy.

Phoenix Cluster

The Largest Galaxy!!!

The other galaxies are not even close to the Alcyoneus galaxy as it is the largest of all till now. This largest galaxy was discovered by Martijn Oei of Leiden university led the research team of scientists who found this amazing breakthrough. The name of this galaxy Alcyoneus is derived from Greek mythology.

This galaxy was found using the data from the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) network of radio telescopes located in Europe. The researchers were first unsure about the discovery of the galaxy as they thought it might be another black hole because it had an outrageous amount of stardust or incredibly powerful jet streams.

Since these features are also similar to black holes, scientists got confused about it but after deep-dive research, they confirmed that it is another galaxy that is even bigger than IC 1101. The features which were seen in it are normal compared to other radio galaxies. Radio galaxies are one of the many mysteries of the universe, which is a topic for another day.

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The research here does not stop after this giant breakthrough. Scientists are now trying to find more about this giant galaxy in the universe. There can be many other galaxies that can either be larger than this or smaller than this galaxy. The research and theories are still going on and perhaps we can find in the news that after Alcyoneus another largest galaxy has been discovered.

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