how about you go and do a lengthy research piece on a far away galaxy--one without the capabilities to communicate back with Earth...

only galactus is qualified for such things.

Charles, you should TOTALLY get Mass Effect.

And Slog about your progress. Talk to Sam, he'll help.

How can the Milky Way be truly appreciated objectively if no human being has ever seen our entire galaxy at once and likely never will?

How can alien galaxies be truly judged from only one vantage point, with very limited ability to perceive them, with limited resolution, in only a tiny portion of the spectrum?

Don't worry, Charles, your spaceship will be arriving shortly. You should go outside right now and stand in the middle of the street to wait for it. (P.S.: If anyone hassles you about standing in the street, just tell them you're waiting for your spaceship - they'll understand.)

all galaxies are equally beautiful in the eyes of jesus.

Andromeda is nothing but a punk-ass bitch!

Only things that were designed get to have critics.

Charles, what the hell are you talking about? This and your last post about astronomy are like listening to a 16 year old pothead wax poetic. Our Galaxy is a pretty ordinary place to be, give or take some fine points.

And yeah, Andromeda is TOTALLY a punk ass bitch.

I like the swirly ones.

Great. Next you're going to tell us the Lesser Magellenic Cloud has been unfairly stigmatized as being inferior to the Greater Magellenic Cloud, or, that the Sombrero Galaxy is a thinly-veiled racist designation.

It amazes me sometimes that you actually get PAID to cogitate this drivel...

Hey, cut Andromeda some slack - it's on a collision course with our galaxy. But that won't be the bad one. There's another galaxy headed for us after Andromeda that will probably rip the shit out of both galaxies - in a billion years or so.

"it is up to the critic of tomorrow to judge which are good galaxies and which are not so good"

Is it really, Charles? No.

"The new critic must also pass judgment on the Milky Way"

Must they really, Charles? No.

"is it special, remarkable, original?"

No.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

charles just looks for any excuse to post racy pictures. speaking of which, i like these...

Isnt it obvious that Marxist Galaxies are GOOD, while Captialist Galaxies are BAD?

And, of course, young white female galaxies that kill people, must be good.

Poor Charles- he wasnt even born when Paul Kanter wrote "Blows Against the Empire".
Maybe he heard it in utero, and it imprinted.

Fifty Two Eighty @12, since we can only "see" 5% of the universe, who knows how many dark matter/energy galaxies are bearing down on us right now.

There's a diffuse mass concentration called "The Great Attractor" 250 million light-years away, pulling our galaxy, along with millions of others, toward it.

Wow, Paul Kantner. There's a name I haven't heard in a while. That guy did even more drugs than I did in the 60s and 70s. Hard to believe I know, but it's true.

Consider yourself lucky to look at Punk-Ass galaxies at all! Used to be kids didn't even know that the universe was so frickin big. The modern mind has far more opportunities for awe and humility than any generation in the past. Each of those galaxies represents around two hundred billion stars that no human will ever get to go to. Each star has the potential to host a world as fucked up and complicated as this one. These thoughts should not be limited to dope smoking teenagers. Cause thoughts like these are awesome, dude.

My third grader could make that galaxy.

Jesus, dude, has the existence of telescopes and galaxies previously escaped your notice?

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/Default.aspx