Our Solar System consists of our star, the Sun, and its orbiting planets (including Earth), along

with numerous moons, asteroids, comet material,

rocks, and dust. Our Sun is just one star among the hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. If we shrink the Sun down to smaller than
a grain of sand, we can imagine our Solar System to be small enough to fit onto the palm of your hand. Pluto would orbit about an inch from the
middle of your palm.

On that scale with our Solar System in your hand, the Milky Way Galaxy, with its 200 – 400 billion stars, would span North America (see the
illustration on the right). Galaxies come in many sizes. The Milky Way is big, but some galaxies, like our Andromeda Galaxy neighbor, are much
larger.

The universe is all of the galaxies – billions of them! NASA’s telescopes allow us to study galaxies beyond our own in exquisite detail, and to
explore the most distant reaches of the observable universe. The Hubble Space Telescope made one of the deepest images of the universe, called
the Hubble Extreme Deep Field (image at the top of this article). Soon the James Webb Space Telescope will be exploring galaxies forming at the
very beginning of the universe.

You are one of the billions of people on our Earth. Our Earth orbits the Sun in our Solar System. Our Sun is one star among the billions in the Milky
Way Galaxy. Our Milky Way Galaxy is one among the billions of galaxies in our Universe. You are unique in the Universe!
the Milky Way

A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems. A galaxy is held together by gravity.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, also has a supermassive black hole in the middle

Image Galaxy Constellation Origin of name Notes

 Andromeda, which is shortened from
Andromeda "Andromeda Galaxy", gets its name from the
Andromeda
Galaxy area of the sky in which it appears, the
constellation of Andromeda.
Andromeda is the closest big galaxy to the Milky Way and
is expected to collide with the Milky Way around 4 billion
years from now. The two will eventually merge into a
single new galaxy called Milkomeda.

Antennae
Corvus Looks are similar to an insect's antennae.
Galaxies

It has a spectacular dark band of absorbing

Black Eye dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus,
Coma Berenices
Galaxy giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black
Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy.

Bode's Named for Johann Elert Bode who

Ursa Major
Galaxy discovered this galaxy in 1774.

Butterfly
Virgo Looks are similar to a butterfly.
Galaxies

Cartwheel Its visual appearance is similar to that of a

Sculptor
Galaxy spoked cartwheel.

Cigar Galaxy Ursa Major Appears similar in shape to a cigar.

Circinus Named after the constellation it is located in
Circinus
Galaxy (Circinus).

Comet This galaxy is named after its unusual The comet effect is caused by tidal stripping by its galaxy
Sculptor
Galaxy appearance, looking like a comet. cluster, Abell 2667.

Galaxy Cosmos Redshift 7 is reported to be the brightest

The name of this galaxy is based on of distant galaxies (z > 6) and to contain some of the
Cosmos
Sextans a redshift (z) measurement of nearly 7 earliest first stars (first generation; Population III) that
Redshift 7
(actually, z = 6.604).[2] produced the chemical elements needed for the later
formation of planets and life as we know it.[2]

It is of the subtype Hoag-type galaxy, and may in fact be

Hoag's This is named after Art Hoag, who
Serpens Caput a polar-ring galaxy with the ring in the plane of rotation of
Object discovered this ring galaxy.
the central object.

Large This is the fourth largest galaxy in the Local Group, and
Magellanic Dorado/Mensa Named after Ferdinand Magellan forms a pair with the SMC, and from recent research, may
Cloud not be part of the Milky Way system of satellites at all.[3]

Mice
Coma Berenices Looks are similar to a mouse.
Galaxies

Small
This forms a pair with the LMC, and from recent research,
Magellanic Tucana Named after Ferdinand Magellan
may not be part of the Milky Way system of satellites at all.
Cloud
 Also called VV 32 and Arp 148, this is a very peculiar
Mayall's This is named after Nicholas Mayall, of looking object, and is likely to be not one galaxy, but two
Ursa Major
Object the Lick Observatory, who discovered it.[4][5][6] galaxies undergoing a collision. Event in images is a
spindle shape and a ring shape.

The appearance from Earth of the galaxy – The galaxy containing the Sun and its Solar System, and
Milky Way Sagittarius (centre)
a band of light. therefore Earth.

Pinwheel
Ursa Major Similar in appearance to a pinwheel (toy).
Galaxy

Sombrero
Virgo Similar in appearance to a sombrero.
Galaxy

Sunflower
Canes Venatici Similar in appearance to a sunflower.
Galaxy

Tadpole The name comes from the resemblance of This shape resulted from tidal interaction that drew out a
Draco
Galaxy the galaxy to a tadpole. long tidal tail.

Whirlpool From the whirlpool appearance this

Canes Venatici
Galaxy gravitationally disturbed galaxy exhibits.
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains
the Solar System, with the name describing
the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy
band of light seen in the night sky formed
from stars that cannot be individually
distinguished by the naked eye.
Age: 13.51 billion years
Stars: 250 billion ± 150 billion
Did you know: The shape of the Milky Way
was discovered by Edwin Hubble.
A Galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust,
and billions of stars and their solar systems.

The Universe is everything we can touch,

feel, sense, measure or detect. It includes
living things, planets, stars, galaxies, dust
clouds, light, and even time. ...
The Universe contains billions of galaxies,
each containing millions or billions of stars.
The space between the stars and galaxies is
largely empty.