Containing a number of galaxies however smaller than a cluster, galaxy teams may be engaging wide-field targets.
The Leo Triplet (also referred to as the M66 Group) consists of three spiral galaxies: M65, M66, and NGC 3628. Credit score: Alistair Symon
We regularly consider galaxies both as particular person “island universes” or as a member of a galaxy cluster. However there’s one other class of affiliation: galaxy teams. Many galaxies — maybe most within the native universe — are a part of a galaxy group. Our personal Milky Way is a part of such a gaggle: the Local Group.
Galaxy teams are smaller than clusters, sometimes containing not more than 50 members. Our own Local Group has solely three massive galaxies: the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and the Pinwheel Galaxy (M33). The remaining are small irregular, elliptical, and dwarf galaxies.
Many of those galaxy teams make for great targets with binoculars or telescopes, together with the M81 Group (with M82 mendacity ½° away from the eponymous galaxy); M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy, accompanied by the dwarf galaxy NGC 5195); and the Leo Triplet (M65, M66, and NGC 3628).
For extra galaxy teams to focus on, take a look at this story by Alan Goldstein from our Could problem:
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