How was the galaxy formed?
1 Answer
From gas and dust with some gravity thrown in.
Explanation:
The three things mentioned above are all it takes to create any galaxy.
Above you see the Eagle Nebula's " Pillars of Creation" as seen by the Hubble Telescope. What appears to be clouds of smoke is actually a collection of hot gases and dust where stars are being created at this very moment. It is this sort of material which creates galaxies.
At the center of every galaxy there exists a black hole, the Milky Way as well. The gravity of the black hole extends to the edges of our galaxy.
In its earliest days of existence, our galaxy looked like a spiral version of the picture above. The distribution of dust and gas was uneven and there was a pooling effect. Where gas became more dense stars formed. These stars with their own gravitational field in turn captured gas and dust. From this gas and dust our own solar system was created.
Much of the dust within our galaxy came from the explosion of stars billions of years prior. Those super novae supplied all the natural elements of the periodic table and allow for the creation of the rocky planets found in our solar system.
