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The observable universe contains as many as an estimated 2 trillion galaxies [36] [37] [38] and, overall, as many as an estimated 10 24 stars [39] [40] – more stars (and, potentially, Earth-like planets) than all the grains of beach sand on planet Earth. [41] [42] [43] Other estimates are in the hundreds of billions rather than trillions.
Many barred spiral galaxies are active, possibly as a result of gas being channeled into the core along the arms. [91] Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a large disk-shaped barred-spiral galaxy [92] about 30 kiloparsecs in diameter and a kiloparsec thick.
Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. [38] Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis, [39] observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
The physical universe is defined as all of space and time [a] (collectively referred to as spacetime) and their contents. [10] Such contents comprise all of energy in its various forms, including electromagnetic radiation and matter, and therefore planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space.
The term "The Local Group" was introduced by Edwin Hubble in Chapter VI of his 1936 book The Realm of the Nebulae. [11] There, he described it as "a typical small group of nebulae which is isolated in the general field" and delineated, by decreasing luminosity, its members to be M31, Milky Way, M33, Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, M32, NGC 205, NGC 6822, NGC 185, IC 1613 and ...
Widely recognised as being among the largest known stars, [26] radius decreased to ~500 R ☉ during the 2020 great dimming event. [76] R Horologii: 635 [61] L/T eff: A red giant star with one of the largest ranges in brightness known of stars in the night sky visible to the unaided eye. Despite its large radius, it is less massive than the Sun.
A black hole (artist concept); Vela Pulsar, a rotating neutron star; M80, a globular cluster, and the Pleiades, an open star cluster; The Whirlpool galaxy and Abell 2744, a galaxy cluster; Superclusters, galactic filaments and voids
The Laniakea Supercluster is the supercluster that contains the Virgo Cluster, Local Group, and by extension on the latter, our galaxy; the Milky Way. [2] Virgo Supercluster: z= 0.000; Length = 33 Mpc (110 million light-years) It contains the Local Group with our galaxy, the Milky Way.