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What is a galaxy in relation to the universe?

Updated: 8/17/2019
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14y ago

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A galaxy consisting of a few hundred billion stars is a mote of dust in the vastness of the universe. Our galaxy (the Milky Way) is about 100 000 light years across, the closest neighbor (Andromeda - she is very close in universal comparison to distant galaxies) is about 2 000 000 light years away. That means if you see light from Andromeda (which you can if you look in the right place on a very dark night) the light left Andromeda two million years ago (when there were not even any human beings on Earth yet)!
A scale model would have the Milky Way and Andromeda each the size of grapefruits (10 cm diameter) at a distance of 2 meters from each other.
There are about 300 000 000 000 (three hundred billion) galaxies in the visible universe, give or take a few. Most of the universe is not as densely packed as the group of galaxies that Andromeda and the Milky Way belong to, but is quite empty.

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Q: What is a galaxy in relation to the universe?
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