Bad Astronomy

Crash Course Astronomy: Galaxies, Part 1

Three of the galaxies in this famous grouping, Stephan's Quintet, are distorted from their gravitational interactions with one another. One member of the group, NGC 7320 (upper left) is actually seven times closer to Earth than the rest.
Galaxies!  

Photo by NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team

Last week on Crash Course Astronomy, we took a tour of our Milky Way: a gorgeous, splashy spiral galaxy.

But there are other kinds of galaxies. They come in many shapes and sizes, all of which are beautiful, fascinating, gorgeous, and—honestly—really, really cool.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

Mind you, this is only Part 1! In Part 2 I’ll talk about even more, different kinds of galaxies, where they live, and even … well, I don’t want to spoil it. But these episodes keep on getting bigger, and we still have a long way to go.