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 …

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 …

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 …

Mar 23, 2025 · Typically, galaxies are millions of light-years apart. Galaxies are the building blocks of our universe. Their distribution isn’t random, as one might suppose. Instead, galaxies …

May 9, 2025 · In modern times, though, we use “galaxy” more generically to refer to any large system of stars, gas, dust and dark matter, all held together by their mutual gravity.

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...

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.

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, …

Galaxies are titanic swarms of tens of millions to trillions of stars, orbiting around their common center of gravity. They also contain interstellar gas and dust. Galaxies show a range of shapes …

Sep 25, 2025 · What Is a Galaxy? The Short Answer: A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems, all held together by gravity. We live on a planet …