• Question: How many galaxies are visible from earth?

    Asked by Octopus Prime to Simon, Julia, Delma, Andrew, Alex on 13 Dec 2015. This question was also asked by kaneki.
    • Photo: Andrew Winnard

      Andrew Winnard answered on 13 Dec 2015:

      Squeak! Monkonaut Sam here helping Andrew with all the great questions you’ve sent in.

      From Earth, with the naked eye there is one other galaxy you can see from Earth if you look in the right place at the right time, and that is called Andromeda, which is the closest other galaxy to the Milky Way, although being the nearest doesn’t mean it’s close – it’s still about 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way!

      If you have a powerful enough telescope then you’ll be able to see lots, lots more but it’s impossible to put a number on how many as we’re finding new ones all the time as we develop new and better telescopes and equipment.

      Thank you for your great question, and Andrew and I both hope you enjoy Tim’s launch on Tuesday. If you’d like to learn more about how the launch will work, Andrew has a great video on his profile page so be sure to check that out!

      #monkonaut

    • Photo: Delma Childers

      Delma Childers answered on 14 Dec 2015:

      Assuming good weather, the right season and a good vantage point, you can see about nine galaxies with the naked eye from Earth – one of which is an arm of our very own Milky Way galaxy! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_galaxies#Naked-eye_galaxies

      A couple of the galaxies listed are only visible from the Southern Hemisphere, so you’ll need to be in South America, Africa, Australia, or Antarctica to see them. Alex, have you spotted the Large or Small Magellanic Cloud? 😀

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