Our Milky Way is tiny compared to IC 1101

[Ichingcarpenter]

The galaxy's diffuse stellar halo light extends to at least 1.4 million light years, which makes it one of the largest known galaxies in terms of breadth.It is the central galaxy of a massive cluster containing a mass (mostly dark matter) of roughly 100 trillion stars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_1101

[longship]

1. A billion light years away!

Pretty close as the universe goes. But what we see is how it was a billion years ago. By the standards of the universe, maybe one ought to put it, a mere billion years ago.

Neil deGrasse Tyson will be broadcasting the Carl Sagan Cosmos Reboot starting March 9th on your local Fox Entertainment affiliate. (No, not Fox News!)

They are promoting the hell out of it.

Hear Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carl's widow, Ann Druyan (producer for both Cosmos), in an interview reviewing the first episode from Australia.

Skeptic Zone.

Or, you can snag the audio mp3 Here.

It's a great interview with lots of good stuff.

[rock]

2. I thought that Andromeda was in the range of 1-3 x the size the Milky Way

The diagram show it considerably larger. What's the deal?

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Hey ..... Its a History Channel screen catch

What can I say?

The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest galaxy of the Local Group, which also contains the Milky Way, the Triangulum Galaxy, and about 30 other smaller galaxies.

Although the largest, the Andromeda Galaxy may not be the most massive, as recent findings suggest that the Milky Way contains more dark matter and could be the most massive in the grouping


The 2006 observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars:[8] at least twice the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is estimated to be 200–400 billion.[12]

The Andromeda Galaxy is estimated to be 7.1×1011 solar masses.


In comparison a 2009 study estimated that the Milky Way and M31 are about equal in mass, while a 2006 study put the mass of the Milky Way at ~80% of the mass of the Andromeda Galaxy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy

[rock]

4. Wow!

Thx

[frogmarch]

5. Wow!

I was so intrigued by your post (the size of the galaxy boggles my mind!) that I looked for more information about IC 1101. I found a good video about it on You Tube.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. I saw the video where our sun is a dot

as compared to other monsters out there but didn't realize myself how big galaxies could get.

Think of all the planets a 100 trillion suns gives you

Mind blowing .... I agree.

great video it sounds like our friend Neil
giving voice to the video.

[roguevalley]

7. i imagine there is great illumination among the planets there