A Galaxy is a bunch of stars!
It is a large, independant system of Stars, typically containing millions to hundreds of billions of stars. Even the smallest Galaxy takes hundreds of light years to cross.
The Galaxy pictured to the left is called the Andromeda Galaxy it is the galaxy known to be the furthest away from us. The light we see from these stars is actually 220,000 years old. So you are seeing the Galaxy the way it use to be. If there were any changes to occur (say today) we wouldn't see them for 220,000 years.
I don't think I'll wait around.
(Do you?)
That is how many light years it takes for it's light to reach us.
Galaxies are classified by their shape. There are 4 classes of Galaxies.
They are:
Spiral
Barred Spiral
Elliptical
Irregular
We will talk about these later.
Now
Can you find your way out?