For things really, really far away, you need to look outside our Milky Way galaxy. There are millions of other galaxies, each made of hundreds of millions of stars. Our own galaxy is nearly 100,000 Light-Years in size.

Here is one of the closest galaxies to our own, the Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. It's about 2 million Light-Years away from us.

.

.

.

.

.

Here is another spiral galaxy, seen "top-view." It's called the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). It's about 37 million Light-Years away.

.

.

.

.

.

This is a another shape galaxy. It is a "barred spiral" galaxy (M91).

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

As you can see,
galaxies come in many shapes.

.....:::::.... Lawrence Hall of Science -- University of California, Berkeley.

Questions? Ask Alan Gould
Last updated 06/23/2004