Are some of the stars on the sky actually galaxies?

Question

A friend told me that... Is it true?

Answer 1

Almost none of the stars you see are galaxies. The Andromeda galaxy can be seen, but it doesn't look much like a star even to the naked eye.

The Magellanic clouds are just that: they look like diffuse clouds, not stars.

Some faint star-like objects (to the naked eye) are globular clusters of hundreds of thousands of giant stars, but they're in and around our own galaxy. They're still very big and a long way off, though.

Answer 2

Nothing that looks like a star to the naked eye is a galaxy. Galaxies are so faint that ones that small are invisible. Galaxies visible to the naked eye look like fuzzy spots in the sky. About the only easily visible galaxies are the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in the northern hemisphere and the Magellanic clouds in the south.

Answer 3

Absolutely: They appear as milky stars. In fact, the word galaxy comes from the Greek "γαλαξίας", which means "milky" as per the first galaxy named by humankind, the Milky Way. This is most obvious visible galaxy and it appears as a fuzzy band across the whole sky. Two nearby satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, are visible from the southern hemisphere only. All other galaxies look like extremely dim milky stars.

For a long time, all milky patches and points in the sky were referred to as nebulae, which is Latin for "clouds". It was Edwin Hubble who first understood that many of these nebulae were separate "island universes" of stars and that therefore the Milky Way encirling our whole sky was really the thickest part of our own "island": which is how they all came to be called "galaxies".

Naked eye galaxies outside the Milky Way include Andromeda which is a milky star currently found shining high in the evening sky, the Whirlpool galaxy down from the end of the handle of the Big Dipper, and a host of other ones.

You can see them in dark skies that are free of moonlight, auroras and terrestrial light pollution. The light from these galaxies is the combined light of millions of stars, emitted millions of years ago.

Answer 4

Some of the stars you see with naked eyes are galaxies.
If your eyes are good they may look a little fuzzy,use binoculars and the fuzziness becomes more apparent.
A star is a clear spot of light that twinkles,galaxies twinkle too but the contrast of bright and dim stars gives them their characteristic appearance.

Answer 5

I think that you can only see whats in our galaxy with the naked eye. There are billions of stars in our own galaxy

Answer 6

most galaxies would be to far away for us to see. but the Andromeda galaxy could be seen, idk with the naked eye but it can be with a telescope. some of the other dwarf galaxies around the milky way might be visible too.

Answer 7

yes, it is true, but it depends where you are in accordanc eto light pollution. most stars are also binary systems (two stars in mutatual orbit).