Stars are massive balls of hot gas that produce their own light and energy through nuclear fusion. Our Sun is a star, but many of the stars visible in the night sky are much larger, brighter, or farther away than the Sun.

Galaxies are enormous collections of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter held together by gravity. A single galaxy can contain millions to trillions of stars. Our Solar System is located within the Milky Way Galaxy.

From bright individual stars to distant galaxies millions of light years away, these objects reveal the incredible scale and diversity of the universe.