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disk
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Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of four protoplanetary disks around young stars in the Orion Nebula. NGC 5866 An accretion disk that might be producing planets around a young star named HD 141569A, in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The star lies some 320 light-years from Earth. The photograph has been modified to simulate what the disk would look like if viewed from above, and false colours were added to better show the disk's structure. To reveal the disk, the star's light was blocked out, so a black central region appears in place of the star. A nearby double-star system appears at upper left.
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disk

galactic
Also known as: disk component
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Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of four protoplanetary disks around young stars in the Orion Nebula.
Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of four protoplanetary disks around young stars in the Orion Nebula.

The disk is a prominent component of spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way. It's a flat structure extending from the galactic center, containing stars, gas, and dust. This disk has a thickness roughly one-fifth of its diameter.12

Within the disk, there's a "thin disk" composed of gas, dust, and younger stars, and a "thick disk" with older stars. Spiral arms, which are a key feature of the disk, are also present. Dust clouds are concentrated in the disk's plane and are often most visible within the spiral arms.134

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
9 Britannica Sources
  1. Milky Way Galaxy - The disk
  2. galaxy - The disk component
  3. Milky Way Galaxy - Dust clouds
  4. galaxy - Spiral arms
  5. nebula - Interstellar dust
  6. star: Top Questions
  7. galactic halo
  8. circumstellar disk
  9. star - Birth of stars and evolution to the main sequence

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