![]() The entire Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way, Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies, spans 9.8 million light years. IC 1101 spans 4 million light years – some estimates even give the galaxy a diameter of 6 million light years – while the Milky Way has a visible diameter of 150,000 to 200,000 light years. The many collisions have stripped the galaxies of star-forming gas and dust, resulting in very little active star formation taking place in IC 1101. The immense size of IC 1101 is believed to be the result of many smaller galaxies merging with each other. ![]() For this reason, the half-light radius is used as a measurement. Longer exposures with larger telescopes will always reveal more than shorter ones in smaller instruments. ![]() It does not reflect the galaxy’s actual size, which is difficult to measure because galaxies do not have clear boundaries, but simply get fainter further from the core.Īdditionally, a galaxy’s apparent size changes depending on the size and sensitivity of the telescope, as well as on the length of time for which the galaxy is observed. Also called the half-light radius, the effective radius is the radius at which half of the galaxy’s light is emitted. IC 1101 has an angular size of 1.20 by 0.60 arcminutes and an effective radius of about 212,000 light years. The halo of IC 1101 stretches about 2 million light years (600 kiloparsecs) from the core, making the galaxy one of the largest ones discovered to date, with a diameter of about 4 million light years.
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