There are over 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe yet there is also a “future visibility limit”.
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The word galaxy is derived from the Greek word galaxias which literally means “milky”.
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This is a reference to the Milky Way galaxy which contains our solar system. Galaxies are historically categorized by their apparent shape, of which there are three:
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Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped with dusty, curving arms.
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Irregular galaxies have an unusual or irregular shape.
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An elliptical galaxy, has an ellipse-shaped light profile.
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Most galaxies are between 1,000 and 10,000 parsecs in diameter. A parsec is a astronimcal unit of length.
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In astronomical literature, the capitalized word “Galaxy” is used to refer to our galaxy, the Milky Way.
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Most galaxies in the universe are actually dwarf galaxies. These are relatively small when compared to other galaxies – roughly one hundredth the size of the Milky Way with only a few billion stars.
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Prior to 2021, the most distant and primordial galaxy ever discovered was the catchy z8 GND 5296, which is approximately 13.1 billion light years away.