Galaxy

This elliptical galaxy is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located about 70,000 light-years away and named for its position in the constellation Sagittarius. It is currently being disrupted by the Milky Way's gravitational forces, losing stars and gas.

Instead of a uniform spread, stars cluster into galaxies, which then form groups and superclusters, leaving vast, nearly empty voids between these massive structures.

Our solar system, including the Sun and all its planets, orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy at an incredible speed of about 828,000 kilometers per hour (514,000 mph). This swift galactic journey takes approximately 230 million years to complete.

Known as Gaia BH1, it's located in the constellation Ophiuchus and is about 10 times the mass of our Sun. This discovery challenges previous assumptions about how many dormant black holes exist in our galaxy and their detectability.

This mind-boggling comparison helps visualize the immense scale of the cosmos. Scientists estimate there are billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, making the number truly astronomical and humbling.