Galaxies
Galaxies in the Division One series. Image source: Wikimedia public domain.
Andromeda
The nearest standard-sized galaxy to the Milky Way. It is another giant spiral, like the Milky Way, but is a standard spiral. It is part of the Local Group, or galactic cluster, and like our own galaxy, it has numerous small satellite galaxies orbiting it, and occasionally passing through it. This has left the galactic plane rather warped.
Description
Large Magellanic Cloud
A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way great spiral. The LMC, as it is known among astronomers, is the second or possibly third closest galaxy to the Milky Way. In the Pan-Galactic Coalition, there is not a great deal known about the LMC and its cultures, but what is known is not good. Slavery is practiced by many of the cultures found there, and they have a mineral they call "trigonium" that is important in their technologies. It is difficult to mine, and the slaves are used to obtain it.
Description
A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way great spiral, approximately 160,000 light years from the edge of the Milky Way. The LMC, as it is known among astronomers, is the second or possibly third closest galaxy to the Milky Way. It is a small barred spiral, of the type known as SBm, a dwarf barred spiral. The category was named "Magellanic Spiral" after the prototype LMC, and is intermediate between a dwarf spiral galaxy and a dwarf irregular galaxy, the latter of which has essentially no morphology. SBm types often have curved-T-shaped spiral arms, coming off the ends of the bars.
The LMC is approximately 14,000 light years in diameter and has a mass of approximately 10 billion solar masses.
Milky Way Galaxy
Earth's home galaxy, and the site of the Pan-Galactic Coalition. The Milky Way is a giant barred spiral galaxy, possessed of a fat bar instead of a central bulge. Four arms come off the ends of the bar, two on each end.
Description
Artist's Concept: Nick Risinger - Own work Adapted from the following NASA images:
236084main MilkyWay-full-annotated.jpg
Messier51 sRGB.jpg
Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy
A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and the closest galaxy outside our own. This galaxy is actually in process of being cannibalized by the Milky Way, and is in shape rather like a spiral arm that lies perpendicular to the galactic disk.
Description
Source: ESA http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/09/The_Sagittarius_dwarf_galaxy_in_Gaia_s_all-sky_view
Permission: ESA/Gaia/DPAC,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
