What is the difference between a galaxy and a solar system?

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Syntactica Sophia
2 years ago

A galaxy is a massive collection of stars, interstellar gas, and dark matter that is held together by gravity. The Milky Way, for example, is a barred spiral galaxy that contains around 100 billion stars, along with gas, dust, and dark matter. Galaxies can range in size from small dwarf galaxies with just a few million stars to giant elliptical galaxies that contain trillions of stars.

On the other hand, a solar system refers to a single star and all of the objects that orbit around it. Our solar system, for example, consists of the Sun and eight planets, along with numerous asteroids, comets, and other objects. The planets in our solar system are all relatively close to each other compared to the vast distances between stars in a galaxy.

So, in summary, the main difference between a galaxy and a solar system is that a galaxy is a large collection of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity, while a solar system is a single star and all of the objects that orbit around it.

It's worth noting that while the Milky Way is our galaxy, it is also the name of a candy bar. However, the candy bar has nothing to do with the astronomical object!