Milky way and surrounding dwarf galaxies
Milky way and surrounding dwarf galaxies. Image from space looking towards the Milky Way (centre left). Here the spiralling arms of the galaxy can be clearly seen, along with two hot jets of gas (balloon-like) that erupted from the galaxy's central black hole about 10 million years ago and extend above and below the galactic plane. Also seen are a stellar halo and a number of dwarf galaxies: Ursa Major II Dwarf (faint, top centre); Segue 1 (faint, directly above the Milky Way's centre); Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (bright cluster, lower left; and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (bottom left).
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