galaxies.im
The galaxy hub

Look up, and keep going.

Our own Milky Way, black holes, the Big Bang and the galaxies beyond, for families, classrooms and anyone who has ever stared at a starry sky. Every fact here links to its source. Warm up with the game: can you name it from one clue?

What am I?

8 clues. Pick the one each clue describes.

Press start for your first clue.

Ten wonders

  • Black hole
  • Milky Way
  • Big Bang
  • Andromeda
  • Dark matter
  • Space telescope
  • Quasar
  • Supernova
  • Nebula
  • Magellanic Clouds

Each clue in the game is one of the facts in the galaxy file. After you pick, the full fact and its source appear. The night-sky drawing is our own.

What is galaxies.im?

galaxies.im is a small hub for everything beyond our solar system, from the Milky Way to the most distant quasars. Each topic will get its own site with sourced facts, a little history, games and printables. Some true things to start with:

Hundreds of billions

The Milky Way is a large spiral of several hundred billion stars, one of which is the Sun. [source]

Not even light

A black hole is so dense that, just beneath its surface (the event horizon), gravity is strong enough that nothing, not even light, can escape. [source]

A long way round

Our solar system takes about 240 million years to go round the Milky Way just once. [source]

Mist or cloud

Nebula is Latin for “mist” or “cloud”. [source]

Open the galaxy file

Coming soon

Ten sites are planned. The two marked “First wave” come first.

  • Black holesFirst waveblack-holes.galaxies.im

    Planned: what a black hole is, the event horizon, and Sagittarius A* at the heart of the Milky Way.

    Coming soon
  • The Milky WayFirst wavemilky-way.galaxies.im

    Planned: our home galaxy, its spiral arms, where the Sun sits, and how to see the Milky Way for yourself.

    Coming soon
  • The Big Bangbig-bang.galaxies.im

    Planned: how the universe began, its first seconds and minutes, and the evidence astronomers use.

    Coming soon
  • Andromedaandromeda.galaxies.im

    Planned: our nearest major galactic neighbour, how to spot it, and how Edwin Hubble showed it is a galaxy of its own.

    Coming soon
  • Dark matterdark-matter.galaxies.im

    Planned: the invisible matter that holds galaxies together, and the work of Fritz Zwicky and Vera Rubin.

    Coming soon
  • Space telescopestelescopes.galaxies.im

    Planned: Hubble, Webb and the space telescopes that photograph distant galaxies.

    Coming soon
  • Quasarsquasars.galaxies.im

    Planned: the brightest objects in the universe, powered by giant black holes, and 3C 273.

    Coming soon
  • Supernovaesupernovae.galaxies.im

    Planned: exploding stars, how often they happen, and the remnants they leave behind.

    Coming soon
  • Nebulaenebulae.galaxies.im

    Planned: clouds of gas and dust, stellar nurseries and planetary nebulae.

    Coming soon
  • Magellanic Cloudsmagellanic-clouds.galaxies.im

    Planned: the Milky Way’s two satellite galaxies in the southern sky, and how they got their name.

    Coming soon

Sister hubs

galaxies.im is part of the same REALLYBYTE family as these hubs:

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