galaxies

     

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 galaxies

  • 3 main types of these star systems are irregular, spiral & elliptical
  • Astronomers classify these clusters of stars as elliptical, lenticular, irregular or spiral
  • The Virgo cluster is a cluster of these, some of them spiral
  • Hubble studies indicate that these star systems, like the Milky Way, may total 50 billion
  • Big Bang Theory says these groups that may include a trillion stars mostly formed not long after the bang
  • Edouard Stephan's "quest" for these collections of stars & gas got his name on a quintet of them
  • From Greek for "milk", a system of stars such as the Milky Way
  • The Magellanic Clouds are actually the 2 of these large assemblages nearest to us
  • (I'm astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.) Some with billions, others with trilions of stars, these are the fundamental building blocks of visble matter in the universe; they come in many varieties including spiral, irregular & elliptical
  • Pumping out energy, quasars are one type of object described as the active nuclei of these vast structures

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