The Milky Way is a large barred spiral galaxy with a central bar structure extending from the galactic core.

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, located approximately 4.24 light-years away.

A supernova is a powerful and luminous stellar explosion that occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally recognizes 88 constellations that cover the entire celestial sphere.

The initial mass of a star determines its life span and the nature of its death, with massive stars typically ending in black holes or neutron stars.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and is on a collision course with it.

The Big Bang theory describes the expansion of the universe from an initial state of extremely high density and temperature.

According to Wien's displacement law, hotter stars emit shorter wavelengths of light, making them appear blue or violet.

The galactic bulge is a tightly packed group of stars within the central part of most spiral galaxies.

The Pleiades, also known as M45, is a prominent open star cluster located in the constellation Taurus.

The interstellar medium is composed mainly of gas (mostly hydrogen and helium) and dust particles.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is designed specifically to observe the universe in infrared, enabling it to view the earliest galaxies.

A light-year is the distance that light travels in one vacuum year, approximately 9.46 trillion kilometers.

Irregular galaxies do not have a defined shape like spiral or elliptical galaxies and are often the result of gravitational interactions.

Sagittarius A* is a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Orion is one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky, easily identified by the three bright stars that form its belt.

Based on measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation, scientists estimate the age of the universe to be roughly 13.8 billion years.

Cepheid variable stars have a known relationship between their pulsation period and luminosity, making them essential for measuring distances in the universe.

Redshift occurs as galaxies move away from us; the expansion of space stretches the light waves, increasing their wavelength toward the red end of the spectrum.