Galaxies

Galaxies are enormous systems of stars gravitationally bound together. One example is our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way is home to around 100 billion stars. These include the Sun and almost all stars visible to the naked eye.

In stark contrast to the shining stars, there is a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Researchers suspect that one can be found in the centre of almost every galaxy. This is also the case in Andromeda, our neighbouring galaxy. Andromeda itself can only just be recognised by the eye as a faint spot. The Hubble Space Telescope provided evidence of its black hole.

The spiral structure of Andromeda can be identified with a telescope here on Earth, and one can also see that there are countless other galaxies out there with a wide variety of shapes and colours. This variety of galaxies makes the universe a diverse terrain and raises questions about the formation of such star systems. Why are some of the galaxies, geometrically speaking, almost perfect spirals, while others consist of a bunch of chaotically arranged stars?