Compare Worlds
Put any objects side by side, with sizes drawn to true relative scale.
Disc areas drawn to true relative diameter. Objects with no defined radius (spacecraft, nebulae) are omitted from the picture.
| Property | The Milky Way | The Andromeda Galaxy |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Galaxy | Galaxy |
| Radius | — | — |
| Surface gravity | — | — |
| Day (rotation) | — | — |
| Year (orbit) | — | — |
| Distance | You are inside it — the center lies ~26,000 light-years… | 2.5 million light-years — its photons traveled 2.5 million… |
| In one line | A hundred billion stars, and every human who ever lived, in one spiral: our home galaxy. | The most distant thing you can see with your naked eye is our giant neighbor. |
“—” means the property doesn’t apply or isn’t defined for that object. Full sourced figures live on each object’s own page.