A
galaxy is a
gravitationally bound system of
stars,
stellar remnants,
interstellar gas,
dust, and
dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the
Greek , literally "milky", a reference to the
Milky Way. Galaxies range in size from
dwarfs with just a few thousand (10
3) stars to giants with one hundred
trillion (10
14) stars, each orbiting their galaxy's own
center of mass. Galaxies are categorized according to their visual morphology, including
elliptical,
spiral, and
irregular. Many galaxies are thought to have
black holes at their
active centers. The Milky Way's central black hole, known as
Sagittarius A*, has a mass four million times greater than the
Sun. As of July 2015,
EGSY8p7 is the oldest and most distant observed galaxy with a
light travel distance of 13.2 billion
light-years from Earth, and observed as it existed 570 million years after the Big Bang. Previously, as of May 2015,
EGS-zs8-1 was the most distant known galaxy, estimated to have a
light travel distance of 13.1 billion
light-years away and to have 15% of the mass of the Milky Way.