Galaxy Facts for Kids

A Picture of a Galaxy

This web page contains galaxy facts for kids and is a great resource for anyone of any age researching galaxies. We’re going to provide you with the latest and most accurate facts about galaxies in our universe from scientific sources. Alongside galaxy facts, we provide beautiful pictures of galaxies and additional resources for research on galaxies.

The galaxy facts below will help you understand what a galaxy is, the different types of galaxies in our universe, what galaxy Earth is in, what are some famous galaxies and other useful galaxy facts. We hope the below facts about galaxies are helpful and make researching galaxies fun, while opening your imagination into space.

If any of the below galaxy facts are inaccurate or out of date, please contact us and let us know.

15 Galaxy Facts for Kids

  1. A galaxy is a collection of dark matter, dust, interstellar gas, stars and stellar remnants bound by gravitation.
  2. Astronomers believe there are over 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.
  3. Small dwarf galaxies can have as few as ten million stars, while large galaxies can have hundreds of trillions of stars.
  4. Astronomers believe the center of every galaxy contains at least one massive blackhole. The powerful gravitational hold of the black hole is what keeps a galaxy bound.
  5. In 1926, Edwin Hubble created the Hubble sequence, a morphological classification scheme for galaxies.
  6. The three classifications in the Hubble sequence are Elliptical galaxies, Spiral Galaxies and Lenticular Galaxies.
  7. An elliptical galaxy has a smooth, featureless light distribution and appear as ellipses in photos.
  8. A spiral galaxy is a flat, rotating disc with stars, planets, dust and gases. They get their name from the ongoing star formation in the spiral structures extending from the galactic disc.
  9. A lenticular galaxy has a bright bulge in the center and is surrounded by a disk-like structure.
  10. An irregular galaxy has no distinct shape, usually small and very chaotic.
  11. The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral galaxy and the home of our solar system.
  12. The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy that will one day collide and merge with our Milky Way Galaxy.
  13. The Black Eye Galaxy is a spiral galaxy, also known as the Evil Eye Galaxy. It gets its name from the dark band of absorbing dust in front of its bright nucleus.
  14. The Sombrero Galaxy is a lenticular galaxy and gets its name because it dark dust lane and bulge give it a similar appearance to a sombrero hat.
  15. The Whirlpool Galaxy is a spiral galaxy that has the visual appear of a whirlpool, think of water going down a drain.

Additional Resources for Galaxy Research

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