Cosmic Scale
Galaxy sizes compared: Milky Way, Andromeda and the largest galaxies
Our Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across. Andromeda is larger, and the biggest known galaxies and their radio jets stretch for millions of light-years.
See galaxies in 3D, at true scale
| # | Name | Diameter | × Milky Way |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Small Magellanic Cloud Dwarf irregular galaxy | 18,900 light-years | 0.189 |
| 2 | Large Magellanic Cloud Irregular satellite galaxy | 32,200 light-years | 0.322 |
| 3 | Sombrero Galaxy Spiral galaxy, seen almost edge-on | 49,000 light-years | 0.490 |
| 4 | Triangulum Galaxy Spiral galaxy | 61,100 light-years | 0.611 |
| 5 | Whirlpool Galaxy Grand-design spiral galaxy | 76,900 light-years | 0.769 |
| 6 | Milky Way Barred spiral galaxy | 100,000 light-years | 1.00 |
| 7 | Andromeda Galaxy Spiral galaxy | 152,000 light-years | 1.52 |
| 8 | Condor Galaxy Barred spiral galaxy (NGC 6872) | 522,000 light-years | 5.22 |
| 9 | Malin 1 Giant low-brightness spiral | 650,000 light-years | 6.50 |
| 10 | Hercules A Radio galaxy | 920,000 light-years | 9.20 |
| 11 | ESO 383-76 Supergiant elliptical galaxy | 1.8 million light-years | 18.0 |
| 12 | IC 1101 Supergiant elliptical galaxy | 4 million light-years | 40.0 |
| 13 | Alcyoneus Giant radio galaxy | 16 million light-years | 163 |
| 14 | Porphyrion Largest known black-hole jets | 23 million light-years | 230 |
Galaxies
Porphyrion
Porphyrion is a pair of jets from a supermassive black hole that stretch 23 million light-years end to end — the largest black-hole jets ever seen, found in 2024 with the LOFAR radio telescope.
Alcyoneus
Alcyoneus is a giant radio galaxy whose jets have inflated two lobes of plasma stretching 16 million light-years end to end — one of the largest single structures made by one galaxy.
IC 1101
IC 1101 sits at the centre of a rich galaxy cluster and is one of the largest galaxies known.
ESO 383-76
ESO 383-76 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy at the heart of the galaxy cluster Abell 3571, in the Shapley Supercluster — the densest gathering of galaxies in our part of the universe.
Hercules A
Hercules A is a giant elliptical galaxy whose central black hole, about 4 billion Suns, blasts out jets of particles at nearly the speed of light.
Malin 1
Malin 1 is a giant spiral galaxy so faint that it was only discovered in 1986.
Condor Galaxy
The Condor Galaxy, NGC 6872, is one of the largest spiral galaxies known.
Andromeda Galaxy
Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy and the most distant thing most people can see without a telescope.
Milky Way
Our galaxy: a barred spiral of a few hundred billion stars, with a supermassive black hole at its centre and the Sun about two-thirds of the way out.
Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral seen face-on, its arms stirred up by a smaller galaxy, NGC 5195, that is passing behind one of them.
Triangulum Galaxy
The Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group, after Andromeda and the Milky Way.
Sombrero Galaxy
The Sombrero Galaxy is a spiral seen almost edge-on, with a huge glowing bulge crossed by a dark lane of dust — like a wide-brimmed hat.
Large Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the Milky Way's biggest companion galaxy, an irregular spiral distorted by our gravity.
Small Magellanic Cloud
The Small Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, a companion of the Large Magellanic Cloud.