A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. [1][2] The word is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally 'milky', a reference to …

Nov 27, 2025 · A galaxy is any of the systems of stars and interstellar matter that make up the universe. Many such assemblages are so enormous that they contain hundreds of billions of stars. Galaxies …

May 2, 2025 · Galaxies consist of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust, all bound together by gravity. The largest contain trillions of stars and can be more than a million light-years across. The …

Mar 19, 2025 · The Basics: What Is a Galaxy, Really? At its core, a galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter.

Mar 23, 2025 · A galaxy can contain hundreds of billions of stars and be many thousands of light-years across. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is around 100,000 light-years in diameter.

Galaxies are sprawling systems of dust, gas, dark matter, and anywhere from a million to a trillion stars that are held together by gravity. Nearly all large galaxies are thought to also contain...

Jan 18, 2024 · A galaxy is a concentration of millions or billions of stars, gas clouds and pockets of dust, all bound by gravity and swathed in a cocoon of mysterious dark matter.

Nov 7, 2025 · Although these are the four main types, there are various types of galaxies, and they are classified by shape. A galaxy is a cluster of stars, gas, and dust that is kept together by the force of …

The first attempts at systematic catalogues of galaxies were made in the 1960s, with the Catalogue of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies listing 29,418 galaxies and galaxy clusters, and with the …

5 days ago · Our Milky Way is one example of a broad class of galaxies defined by the presence of spiral arms. These galaxies resemble giant rotating pinwheels with a pancake-like disk of stars and a …