Thomas Wright (astronomer)
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Thomas Wright was an English astronomer, mathematician, instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way and to speculate that faint nebulæ were
Portrait of Thomas Wright
Wright's observatory/folly at Westerton, County Durham
An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe
Galaxy
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A galaxy is a physical system of stars, planetary systems, stellar remnants, substellar objects, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek g
Thomas Wright (astronomer)
…instrument maker, architect and garden designer. He was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way and to speculate that faint nebulæ were distant galaxies. Wright was born at Byers Green in County Durham, being the third son of John and Margaret Wright of Pegg's Poole House. His father was a carpenter…
NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 55,000 light-years in diameter and approximately 60 million light-years from Earth.
Photograph of the "Great Andromeda Nebula" by Isaac Roberts, 1899, later identified as the Andromeda Galaxy
This ultraviolet image of Andromeda shows blue regions containing young, massive stars.
The galaxy cluster Abell 1413 is dominated by this cD elliptical galaxy designated Abell 1413 BCG. It has an isophotal diameter of over 800,000 light-years across. Note the gravitational lensing.