PSA: I keep seeing people call the Orion Nebula a galaxy in photo comments, and it's a cloud of gas in our own Milky Way.

I was at a star party in Flagstaff last weekend and heard a newbie point at a great photo of M42 and say 'what galaxy is that?', which made me realize how common the mix-up is, so what's the best way to explain the difference between a nebula and a galaxy to someone just getting into this?

3 comments

3 Comments

miles8251mo ago

Oh man, I've done that. I once called the whole Milky Way a "big space cloud" in front of an astronomy club member... the look they gave me. I try to remember it like this: a nebula is a gas cloud inside a galaxy, like a single storm cloud in the sky, and the galaxy is the whole sky full of billions of stars.

morganj811mo agoMost Upvoted

Hah, @miles825, that's a way better way to picture it.

milesrobinson14d ago

My buddy tried explaining it to his kid as "space glitter in a jar" and now the kid thinks galaxies are just craft projects.