Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter, an important but poorly understood component. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias, literally "milky", a reference to the Milky Way. Examples of galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (10^7) stars to giants with one hundred trillion (10^14) stars, each orbiting their galaxy's own center of mass. Galaxies contain varying numbers of planets, star systems, star clusters and types of interstellar clouds. In between these objects is a sparse interstellar medium of gas, dust, and cosmic rays. Supermassive black holes reside at the center of most galaxies. They are thought to be the primary driver of active galactic nuclei found at the core of some galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy is known to harbor at least one such object. [Galaxy. Wikipedia]