Galaxies are the huge gravitational systems consisting of stars, gas-and-dust congestions and dark matter. They have the huge sizes: our galaxy the Milky Way is not considered large, but has diameter in 100 thousand light years. There are much more massive objects, on average their sizes fluctuate from 16 to 800 thousand light years. The biggest of the known galaxies has diameter about 6 million light years.
The largest galaxy
Light year – the standard size of measurement of a state in space. It is a distance which light moving with speed limit in the Universe covers in a year. Our Galaxy has the spiral form, its diameter is about 100 thousand light years: so much time is necessary for light to fly by from one edge through its center to another.
But it not the largest education, many galaxies have the sizes in several hundreds of thousands of light years, and sometimes it is more than one million.
The largest of the found galaxies is in a star cluster of Abell 2029. It is located at distance more than one billion light years from Earth therefore looks as a small point in Virgo constellation, but actually this incredibly huge lentiform education. Perhaps, now it changed a little, light proceeding from it one billion years ago is visible to the observer. It has no traditional name, it carries number IC 1101.
For the first time this galaxy was observed in the telescope by the famous English astronomer William Gershel in 1790.
Diameter of IC 1101 – about 6 million light years, were not found any galaxy with a bigger width yet. Perhaps, this and most massive star education in the Universe: it in 2 thousand times is heavier than the Milky Way, consists of hundred trillion stars and planets and contains huge amount of dark matter. If to compare its weight to the Sun, then it in several quadrillions times more and heavier. Scientists claim that if to deliver to IC 1101 to the place of the Milky Way, then it would occupy also neighboring galaxies – Andromeda, the Triangle, Small and Big Magellanic Clouds, and they are on incredibly long distances from Earth. IC 1101 and was formed: it faced other objects which were less, and literally took them the gravitation. Astronomers call such galaxies space predators: they are ready to absorb everything that will meet on their way the smaller weight and the sizes.
Other large galaxies
Hercules-and ranks second among the largest galaxies though its diameter is much less – about 1.5 million light years. But it in one thousand times more the Milky Way, and a black hole in its center in one thousand times massivny a black hole in our Galaxy. 1.3 million light years – the NGC 262 size, a star spiral in Andromeda's constellation. It in 13 times more the Milky Way. Scientists can find galaxies only in an observed part of the Universe, but even in it the field for search still huge, only a part of all existing objects is found. In total their more than hundred billion, under assumptions of researchers, and among them can appear larger galaxy.