what is the difference between a constellation and a galaxy?

Question

give some practical uses of a constellation.

Answer 1

constellation - patterns of stars on the night sky, often associated with mythology

galaxy - collection of billions of stars, bound by gravity

practical use of a constellation:
The Plough (or Big Dipper) is part of the constellation Ursa Major.
Taking the two stars on the end (right hand side) and drawing a line upwards leads to Polaris, the pole star. So, using that constellation, you can always find north.

Answer 2

Good question!

A constellation is a pattern of stars in the sky that our minds interpret to look like a shape - a swan, a crab, a hunter, etc. Constellations are easily visible to the naked eye on a clear night, and usually consist of 20 or fewer visible stars. Modern scientists recognized 88 constellations.

A galaxy is a group of millions of stars all gravitationally bound and moving together in space. While there are 88 constallations easily visible from different places on earth, only three galaxies are easily visible without a telescope. The easiest one is our galaxy, the Milky Way, which stretches across the sky in a huge band. From the southern hemisphere its also easy to see the Lesser Magellanic Cloud and the Greater Magellanic Cloud, two galaxies that are part of a group of billions of stars near our galaxy called the Local Group. A powerful telescope can see millions of galaxies.

As for practical uses of constellation, the first and most important is navigation. One of the stars in the constellation Ursa Minor is the north star. If a navigator can see the north star, he can determine his direction and location. Two uses that might be called impractical are enjoyment (I always like looking at the beautiful night sky and trying to find constellations) and astrology, a very unscientific way of using certain constellations to interpret personality or predict future actions.

Answer 3

Constellations are just made up patterns of stars. Usually they are have only 5 or 10 or so bright stars. People look at the sky and say, hey, those 7 stars look like a big dipper. The stars do not have to be all the same distance from Earth, they just have to line up so that they all appear in the same part of the sky. These made up patterns are used by people to help them recognize what part of the sky they are looking at and they have no other purpose or meaning.

A galaxy is a physical thing; a collection of billions of stars all gravitationally bound together. Many have a spiral shape, but many others are just round or even irregular. Every star you see in the sky, including every constellation and billions of other stars we can't see individually, are part of the Milky Way galaxy, which we are inside of and see as a faint hazy band of light in the sky, if it is dark enough. Most people have never seen the Milky Way because city lights make the sky too bright for it to show. Go to the country, far from any city lights, and look up!

Answer 4

A constellation is a grouping of stars that - for human convenience are made into a shape that is memorable. A galaxy is a collection of billions of stars which rotate around a central core (likely with a supermassive black hole in the center) and is 10s of thousands of light years across.

A constellation has NO Meaning from a different point of view whereas a galaxy maintains it's relavance no matter where you look at it from.

Answer 5

Constellation has fewer stars and galaxy has many. Constellation may form amusing shapes but a galaxy is generally spiral or round or irregular.
Contellations help in astronomical studies, navigation and also used in fortune telling (zodiacs).

Answer 6

The stars in a constellation just appear to be in groups. The only thing that groups them together is our point of view. A galaxy is usually a spiral shaped group of stars with a black hole at it's center. Gravity binds them into these swirling groups.

Answer 7

constellation is mainly group of stars... while galaxy is a cluster.. our sky has 88 constellation's while it has lots of galaxy's... some constellations have some galaxy's in it some has very little.....the big bear constel consists of only 7 stars

Answer 8

Constellation is a group of stars.Eg The Big bear consists of a group of 7stars. A galaxy on the other hand is a cluster of stars running in to hundreds of thousands of stars.