the.com/galaxy
a billion-star factory spinning in the dark, with no idea you're watching
means A vast gravitationally bound system of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter — like our own Milky Way — or, loosely, any dazzling gathering of stars, talents, or things.
from From the Greek 'galaxias,' short for 'galaxias kyklos' — the 'milky circle' — built on 'gala,' meaning milk. The ancient Greeks looked up at that pale river of light across the night sky and saw spilled milk; one myth even has it spurting from the breast of the goddess Hera. It traveled through Latin and Old French into English, which is why we still call our home galaxy the Milky Way — a literal translation of the very same starlit dairy.
- stellar census
- The Milky Way holds 100 to 400 billion stars
- central beast
- A supermassive black hole anchors most galaxies
- collision course
- Andromeda will merge with us in 4 billion years
- dark majority
- Most of a galaxy's mass is invisible dark matter
- slow spin
- The Sun takes 230 million years to orbit once
milky way — our galaxy containing ~200 billion stars, sun is one of them
andromeda galaxy — nearest major galaxy to milky way, ~2.5 million light-years away
triangulum galaxy — third largest in local group, visible to naked eye from dark skies
sombrero galaxy — distinctive edge-on spiral galaxy 29 million light-years from earth