Module 8: Groups of Stars

Image Courtesy of NASA and ESA

Interacting Galaxies Create a Rose

Across the universe, stars are grouped in a variety of ways, from small double-star binary systems to large galaxies with more than 1 trillion stars. In this module, you examined these groups of stars, how they are structured, and how they are classified. Specifically, you explored the Milky Way Galaxy, home to the Solar System and planet Earth. This barred spiral galaxy includes 200 to 400 billion stars. Advances in technology, like the Hubble Space Telescope, have shown astronomers that billions of other galaxies could exist beyond the Milky Way Galaxy.

In addition, you learned about cosmology, or the study of the universe's beginnings. This study took you back 13.7 billion years to a point just before the universe began. Here, scientists theorize that a singularity was present and then exploded rapidly creating the universe. Later, galaxies would form and cluster together. Scientists believe that the universe is an open universe, which is still expanding.

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