This optical (blue) and NASA’s Chandra X-ray (red-orange) composite image shows Abell 2029, a cluster of galaxies where the galaxy at the center, IC 1101, is the largest known galaxy in the Universe. (OPTICAL: NOAO/KITT PEAK/J.USON, D.DALE; X-RAY: NASA/CXC/IOA/S.ALLEN ET AL.)

How Big Is The Universe’s Largest Galaxy, Really?

The last image puts it all in perspective.

Compared to what we find in our Solar System, galaxies are truly enormous.

The Sun may be 109 times the diameter of Earth, but the Earth-Sun distance is over 100 times larger than the Sun’s diameter; the distance to Voyager 1 or 2 is ~100 times larger than the Earth-Sun distance; the Oort Cloud’s density peaks ~100 times farther away than Voyager 2, and the distance to the nearest stars are ~100 times farther away than even that. (NASA / JPL-CALTECH)