Tusi se faaauauina mo lenei palakalafa - O le mauaina o le natura o aniva e ese mai isi nebulae (interstellar ao) na faia i le 1920s
. O taumafaiga muamua i lisi faatulagaina o aniva na faia i le 1960s, faatasi ai ma le Catalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies lisiina 29,418 aniva ma faaputuga aniva, ma le Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies, o se lisi atoatoa o aniva ma le tele o ata i luga atu o le 15, lisiina 30,642. I le vaitausaga o le 1980, na lisiina ai e le Lyons Groups of Galaxies le 485 o vaega o aniva e iai ni aniva e 3,933. O le Galaxy Zoo o se poloketi e faʻatatau i se lisi sili atu ona maeʻaeʻa: faʻalauiloa ia Iulai 2007, ua faʻavasegaina sili atu ma le tasi miliona ata o aniva mai le The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, The Hubble Space Telescope ma le Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey.