galaxy

     

A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally boun system consisting of stars, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter. The name is from the Greek root galaxias [γαλαξίας], meaning "milky," a reference to the Milky Way galaxy. Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (107) stars up to giants with one trillion (1012) stars, all orbiting a common center of mass. Galaxies can also contain many multiple star systems, star clusters, and various interstellar clouds. The Sun is one of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy; the Solar System includes the Earth and all the other objects that orbit the Sun.

Trivia about galaxy

  • A small elliptical one of these might contain a million stars; large spiral ones, hundreds of billions
  • Unlike the spiral type, like ours, the elliptical type of this system has little gas & rather dim stars
  • A large group of stars is called a cluster & a large cluster is called this
  • It's a large aggregate of stars
  • This word for a large system of stars comes from the Greek for "milk"
  • Edwin Hubble was the first to say the Andromeda nebula was one of these, separate from ours
  • The triangulum one of these, a spiral type, is a pretty close neighbor of ours at 3 million light-years
  • A giant elliptical one of these may contain more than 10 trillion stars
  • The Greek word for milk gives us this word for a large feature of the skies

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