Myth vs Reality: What Makes Up Galaxies

 

 

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach.

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA, ESA, and STScI except:

 

·       NGC 6822 image courtesy of the Local Group Galaxies Survey Team/NOAO/AURA/NSF

·       Taurus constellation drawing from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory

·       NGC 4565 image courtesy of the European Southern Observatory

·       Small Magellanic Cloud image courtesy of F. Winkler/Middlebury College, the MCELS Team, and NOAO/AURA/NSF

 

Written by Vanessa Thomas

Designed by John Godfrey 

Music courtesy of Association Production Music

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 Top left, a black and white picture of a minotaur. Top right, a color picture of space. 

Text, MYTH versus REALITY 

Myth side 

Text, Galaxies are made only of stars. 

Reality side 

Text, Galaxies contain not just stars, but also planets; moons and other rocky and icy bodies; great clouds of gas and dust; and huge amounts of dark matter, all bound together by gravity.