Galaxies Flashcards, test questions and answers
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What is Galaxies?
Galaxies are large collections of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. They come in many different shapes and sizes, from the spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way to elliptical galaxies with no well-defined structure. Our own Milky Way galaxy is estimated to contain between 100 and 400 billion stars within a disc-shaped structure about 100,000 light years across. It has four main arms of stars that all spiral into a central bulge at its core. The outer edges of the Milky Way are home to vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust known as the galactic halo which is believed to be where much of the galaxy’s dark matter resides. In addition to stars and gas, galaxies also contain an abundance of dark matter an invisible form of matter that makes up most of the mass in galaxies but does not emit or absorb any visible light itself. Dark matter remains one of astronomy’s greatest mysteries as it is still not fully understood what it is made up off or how it behaves on cosmic scales. Galaxies vary greatly in size from tiny dwarf galaxies with only a few million stars up to supermassive black holes surrounded by hundreds of billions or even trillions star systems spread out over millions or even billions light years worth distance. Many smaller galaxies orbit larger ones such as our Milky Way’s satellite dwarf galaxie the Large Magellanic Cloud which orbits around us at a distance of some 160 000 light years away. All in all, Galaxies are fascinating objects whose study has helped us understand more about our universe and our place within it through their evolution over time and what they tell us about cosmology and astrophysics in general.