• Question: if wee found a nother galaxy what woud you call it

    Asked by cheese man to Simonne, Senga, Pete, James, Jake on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Jake Langham

      Jake Langham answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Well, if we discovered it together then I would of course name it the ‘cheese man galaxy’ to thank you for helping us find it. If I discovered it on my own I’d call it the ‘flat cap galaxy’, in tribute to the currently-best-named-galaxy, the ‘sombrero galaxy’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sombrero_Galaxy

      ****

      (Boring bit: Astronomers have found so many galaxies now that they don’t tend to give them nice names. Every so often the Hubble space telescope takes a very careful picture of a tiny bit of the sky and we find thousands of galaxies in it. Maybe scientists think it’s a bit silly to give them all names, or perhaps they just don’t have time. I’m sure you guys could come up with some ideas?)

    • Photo: Senga Robertson

      Senga Robertson answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      Hi Cheese man

      If WE discovered a galaxy I think I’d want you to name it. It’s funny actually scientists have discovered so many galaxies they have stopped giving them special names now….the hubble telescope has taken photos that makes scientists think there are about 10 billion galaxies. That’s crazy. Do you know how long it would take to name 10 billion galaxies? (I did a quick sum based on it taking 30 seconds to name a galaxy) It would take 9,507 years! I guess I can see why they don’t give them all names anymore ha ha

      This website tells you how scientists think there are so many galaxies:
      https://www.physics.org/facts/sand-galaxies.asp

      what would you call a new galaxy?

    • Photo: Pete Gwynne

      Pete Gwynne answered on 14 Nov 2017:

      galaxy caramel?

Comments