The Galaxy Catalog

The universe's massiveness is not easily comprehended by mortal humans.

For instance, the Milky Way galaxy is so massive that it would take a beam of light well over 100,000 years to go from one edge to the other. There are approximately 200 BILLION stars in this medium-sized galaxy.

But here's where the universe's true massiveness begins to take hold: The ESTIMATED number of galaxies (which has tended to rise over time) is between 100 and 125 BILLION ITSELF!

We simply tend to lose perspective of how massive that number is. And how big is the universe itself? A quote I got from a science book long ago (which I could not find to give proper credit to, unfortunately) said that the universe which contains these billions of galaxies is about as crowded as the air over the continent of Europe when THREE WASPS are in the air!

That's one big place.

Today's FamilyFirst site can be as complex or as simple as you like. It's a collection of 113 galaxies assembled at Princeton University Observatory by Zsolt Frei during his thesis work. The research paper is there, in all its complex glory. However, what will interest the layman is the exquisite collection of galaxy photos.

The color photos of these beautiful creations are exquisite.

So enjoy today's FamilyFirst selection. And just try to absorb the size of our universe.

http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~frei/galaxy_catalog.html

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