HUBBLE ATLAS
Comparative Sizes of Milky Way and Compact Galaxy — image from the Hubble Space Telescope

Deep fields & lensing

Comparative Sizes of Milky Way and Compact Galaxy

April 29, 2008 · NASA

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This illustration shows the comparative sizes of our Milky Way Galaxy and an ultracompact galaxy, which existed in the early universe. Although the compact galaxy is only a fraction of the size of our Milky Way, it contains the same number of stars. The small, dense galaxy could fit inside the central hub of our Milky Way.