7 breathtaking images of Milky Way captured by NASA

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is typical: it has hundreds of billions of stars, enough gas and dust to make billions more stars, and at least ten times as much dark matter as all the stars and gas put together.

 The Milky Way is itself on a collision course with our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. 

Like more than two-thirds of the known galaxies, the Milky Way has a spiral shape. At the center of the spiral, a lot of energy and, occasionally, vivid flares are being generated. 

Even though it is the same age as the Milky Way, Hubble observations reveal that the stars in Andromeda's halo are much younger than those in the Milky Way.

This stunning image of NGC 6951 is captured by NASA's Hubble Telescope. It is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cepheus. It is located at a distance of about 75 million light-years from Earth.

 The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, is a spiral galaxy located 31 million light-years away.

Messier 61, also known as M61, NGC 4303, or the Swelling Spiral Galaxy, is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.

Credit: NASA