Think the Milky Way is big? It’s puny compared to M87, an elliptical galaxy 980,000 light years in diameter. The Milky Way is only 100,000 light years in diameter. Let’s not even get into Hercules A, which is 1.5 million light years across.
Astronomer and artist Rhys Taylor has made such comparisons easier and much more fun with his new infographics ("which is what I gather is now the cool term for ‘posters,’" he writes) comparing the sizes of different galaxies.
via How Big Is A Galaxy? Milky Way Shown To Scale | Popular Science.
Ken Denmead
Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as civil engineer. He became the Publisher of GeekDad in 2007, and the owner in 2010. He also wrote the NYT bestselling GeekDad series of project books for parents and kids to share.
