galaxy articles
What's in the Orion Arm?
The region our Solar System calls home within the colossal structure of the Milky Way galaxy is known formally as the Or...
How many arms does our galaxy have?
The Milky Way galaxy, our cosmic home, is classified as a barred spiral galaxy [^3]. While that classification tells us ...
What will happen if two galaxies collide?
When two galaxies meet, the event is less of a violent crash and more of a slow, stately cosmic dance that spans hundred...
What are the three components to form a galaxy?
Galaxies are monumental stellar islands floating in the vast cosmic ocean, each containing billions of stars bound toget...
Is every galaxy a spiral?
The universe is populated by countless island universes, each containing billions of stars, and while the iconic, pinwhe...
What are the three parts of the galaxy?
A galaxy represents a colossal, gravitationally bound system containing stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust,...
Is the Milky Way a universe or galaxy?
The bright band we sometimes see arching across a truly dark night sky—the Milky Way—is one of the most recognizable cel...
How fast do spiral galaxies spin?
The sheer scale of spiral galaxies means that their component stars and gas clouds are moving at astonishing velocities,...
Which arm of the Milky Way is the sun in?
Our star, the Sun, and our entire planetary system are nestled within the vast structure of the Milky Way galaxy, and th...
What is the center of the Local Group?
Our Galactic Home Every galaxy we observe in the night sky belongs to some larger structure, a cosmic hierarchy extendi...
Which galaxy is disk-shaped?
The galaxy that most famously exhibits a distinct, flattened, disk-like shape is our own, the **Milky Way** [^3][^5][^6]...
How does NASA know what the Milky Way looks like?
When we look up at a clear, dark night sky far from city lights, we see the Milky Way as a faint, glowing band of light ...
Which type of galaxy contains mostly older stars?
When we gaze into the cosmos, the sheer variety of galaxies can seem overwhelming, but astronomers simplify this vastnes...
What is a galaxy made up of gas, dust, and stars?
Galaxies are vast, gravitationally bound systems composed of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and an imp...
Are we in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way?
The island of stars we inhabit, the Milky Way galaxy, is a grand, barred spiral structure, and yes, our local neighborho...
How many bodies are in the Milky Way?
The sheer scale of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is a concept that strains human intuition. Asking how many "bodies" r...
Is the solar system in the disk of the Milky Way?
The structure we call home, the Solar System, resides deep within the flattened component of our home galaxy, the Milky ...
How far is the Perseus Arm from Earth?
The sheer scale of the Milky Way galaxy often makes precise measurements feel like an abstract exercise, especially when...
Is our Solar System in the Sagittarius Arm?
The question of exactly where our Sun and its planetary entourage reside within the vast expanse of the Milky Way galaxy...
What galaxy arm is Earth in?
Our cosmic address places the Sun, and by extension, Earth, within a specific, smaller feature of our massive home galax...
Can a supernova be brighter than a galaxy?
That a single stellar explosion can momentarily outshine an entire galaxy containing hundreds of billions of stars might...
What is inside of the Andromeda Galaxy?
The Andromeda Galaxy, known formally as Messier 31 (M31), is our nearest major galactic neighbor, a massive spiral struc...
What is the biggest Messier object?
The search for the most significant or largest object within Charles Messier's famous catalog of deep-sky sights inevita...
What is the rotation curve of a galaxy?
This fundamental concept in astrophysics, the galaxy rotation curve, is essentially a graph mapping out how fast materia...