Galaxy vs. Universe — What's the Difference?

Large assembly of stars, planets, and gas.

The entirety of space, time, and all its contents.

A bound system of stars and cosmic matter.

All that exists, including galaxies, stars, and atoms.

Stellar systems held together by gravitational forces.

The vast expanse containing all galaxies and cosmic structures.

Vast celestial entities with dark matter and interstellar mediums.

The universe (Latin: universus) is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe.

Cosmic structures containing billions of stars.

All spacetime, matter, and energy, including the solar system, all stars and galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space, regarded as a whole.

A galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally "milky", a reference to the Milky Way.

A hypothetical whole of spacetime, matter, and energy that is purported to exist simultaneously with but to be different from this universe

A system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction.

A model or conception of the earth and everything else that exists

Any of numerous large-scale aggregates of stars, gas, and dust that constitute the universe, containing an average of 100 billion (1011) solar masses and ranging in diameter from 1,500 to 300,000 light-years.

The human race or a subset of it

Often Galaxy The Milky Way.

A sphere of interest, activity, or understanding

An assembly of brilliant, glamorous, or distinguished persons or things

(Logic) See universe of discourse.

The Milky Way; the apparent band of concentrated stars which appears in the night sky over earth.

(Statistics) See population.

(galaxy) Any of the collections of many millions or billions of stars, galactic dust, black holes, etc. existing as independent and coherent systems, of which there are billions in the known universe.

Alternative case form of Universe; Our universe.

(figuratively) An assemblage of things or people seen as luminous or brilliant.

The sum of everything that exists in the cosmos.

Any print or pattern reminiscent of a galaxy, generally consisting of blending, semiopaque patches of vibrant color on a dark background.

An entity similar to our universe; one component of a larger entity known as the multiverse.

To furnish with galaxies.

Everything under consideration.

(archaic) To gather together into a luminous whole.

A sample taken from the population.

The Milky Way, that luminous tract, or belt, which is seen at night stretching across the heavens, and which is composed of innumerable stars, so distant and blended as to be distinguishable only with the telescope.

An imaginary collection of worlds.

A very large collection of stars comparable in size to the Milky Way system, held together by gravitational force and separated from other such star systems by large distances of mostly empty space. Galaxies vary widely in shape and size, the most common nearby galaxies being over 70,000 light years in diameter and separated from each other by even larger distances. The number of stars in one galaxy varies, and may extend into the hundreds of billions.

A collection of stories with characters and settings that are less interrelated than those of sequels or prequels.

A splendid or impressive assemblage of persons or things; as, a galaxy of movie stars.

A whole world, in the sense of perspective or social setting.

A splendid assemblage (especially of famous people)

(pantheism) A deity who is equivalent to the sum of everything that exists in the cosmos.

Tufted evergreen perennial herb having spikes of tiny white flowers and glossy green round to heart-shaped leaves that become coppery to maroon or purplish in fall

(archaic) The Earth, the sphere of the world.

(astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust;

All created things viewed as constituting one system or whole; the whole body of things, or of phenomena; the to~ pa^n of the Greeks, the mundus of the Latins; the world; creation.

Everything that exists anywhere;

(statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn;

Everything stated or assumed in a given discussion

The complete scope of cosmic existence.

An all-encompassing realm of space and time.

There are estimated to be around two trillion galaxies in the universe.

A galaxy primarily consists of stars, along with gas, dust, and dark matter.

Yes, Earth is located in the Milky Way galaxy.

The universe is vastly larger, encompassing all galaxies, matter, space, and time.

While most stars are part of galaxies, some rogue stars exist outside of galaxies in intergalactic space.

The universe, as it contains all galaxies and their combined stars.

The observable universe has limits, but the entire universe's size and boundaries are still topics of research and debate.

Galaxies move due to cosmic expansion and gravitational interactions with other cosmic structures.

Current understanding suggests the universe doesn't have a center; it's expanding uniformly.

The concept of multiple universes or a "multiverse" is theoretical, and it's yet to be proven.

No, galaxies are constituent parts of the universe, not the other way around.

The universe, at about 13.8 billion years old, is older than the Milky Way, which is roughly 13.5 billion years old.

Yes, galaxies can and do collide, with the Milky Way and Andromeda set to collide in the future.

Gravitational forces, especially from dark matter, hold a galaxy together.

Many galaxies, including the Milky Way, have supermassive black holes at their centers.