Ion SAa-2(r)-(R) 2-Armed Spiral Galaxy

The **Ion Double-Ringed E0 Dwarf Galaxy** is a relatively small Galaxy in the Steam Islands Galactic Cluster. It contains the *Faster-Than-Light* Nation of the United Socialist States of Vodkaslavia. The Ion Dwarf Galaxy received the name of **Ion** when early Astronomers found the Galactic Bands to give off dazzling light shows from the brightest of the Stars just light the Ion Flower. The Ion Galaxy received its classification of Galaxy around the year 6,000 B.O., when Astronomers were noticing that there were several Clusters of Stars far away in both Spirals and Ellipticals.

The Ion Dwarf Galaxy is a Double-Ringed Spiral Galaxy with a Diameter of 6,950 Parsecs or 22,670 Light Years. The Galaxy contains approximately 304,045,000 systems. Most Systems are located in the Core and Inner Rings. The spiral arms are relatively thin compared to most, though pronounced. The Outer Ring is sparsely populated, though has a defined shape that allowed for its classification. A few Systems are located in the Divide, which is level with the Galactic Plane. Within the first 900 Parsecs, the Systems form a bulge around the Galactic Center. The very center is marked by an intense radio source, named the Ion A\* Supermassive Black Hole, which is a supermassive black hole that the entire Galaxy orbits around.

Ion has several Satellite Galaxies and is part of the Steam Islands Galactic Micro-Cluster in the Steam Islands Galactic Cluster, which is a component of the Forperox Galactic Cluster, which is itself a component of the Horologium Supercluster. It orbits the Steam Islands SBa-(nr)-2(R) 2-Armed Barred Spiral Galaxy, and its voidward neighbor is the Heart Ribbon SAb 2-Armed Spiral Dwarf Galaxy.

## **Appearance**

Ion is visible from Vodkayomics as a hazy band of white light, some 25° wide, arching across the night sky. In night sky observing, although all the individual naked-eye stars in the entire sky are part of the Ion Galaxy, the term “Ion” is limited to this band of light. The light originates from the accumulation of unresolved stars and other material located in the direction of the galactic plane. Dark regions within the band, such as the Watcher's Grasp and the Devil's Eye, are areas where interstellar dust blocks light from distant stars. The area of sky that the Ion Galaxy obscures is called the Zone of Avoidance.

Ion has a relatively low surface brightness. Its visibility can be greatly reduced by background light, such as light pollution or moonlight. The sky needs to be darker than about 20.2 magnitude per square arcsecond in order for the Ion Galaxy to be visible. It should be visible if the limiting magnitude is approximately +5.1 or better and shows a great deal of detail at +6.1. This makes the Ion Galaxy difficult to see from brightly lit urban or suburban areas, but very prominent when viewed from rural areas when Vodkamaines and Vodkanda are below the horizon.

### **Size and Mass**

The Ion Galaxy is the largest of the dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, with its stellar disk approximately 22,670 ly (6.95 kpc) in diameter and, on average, approximately 900 ly (0.28 kpc) thick. There is a ring-like filament of stars rippling above and below the relatively flat galactic plane, wrapping around the Milky Way at a diameter of 24,000–30,000 light-years (7.36–9.20 kpc), which consists of globular clusters and the weak halo.

Estimates of the mass of the Ion Galaxy vary, depending upon the method and data used. The low end of the estimate range is approximately 6.4×1010 solar masses (M☉). According to a study published in 1012, the mass of the entire Ion Galaxy is estimated to be 9.0×1010 M☉. Much of the mass of Ion appears to be dark matter, an unknown and invisible form of matter that interacts gravitationally with ordinary matter. A dark matter halo is conjectured to spread out relatively uniformly to a distance beyond forty kiloparsecs (kpc) from the Galactic Center. Mathematical models of the Ion Galaxy suggest that the mass of dark matter is 3–3.5×1011 M☉. Recent studies indicate a range in mass, as large as 4.5×1011 M☉ and as small as 8×1010 M☉.

The total mass of all the stars in the Milky Way is estimated to be between 5.6×109 M☉ and 8.43×109 M☉. In addition to the stars, there is also interstellar gas, comprising 90% hydrogen and 10% helium by mass, with two thirds of the hydrogen found in the atomic form and the remaining one-third as molecular hydrogen. The mass of this gas is equal to between 10% and 15% of the total mass of the galaxy's stars. Interstellar dust accounts for an additional 1% of the total mass of the gas.

### **Contents**

The Ion Galaxy contains 347,119,055 stars and 1,201,129,773 planets. As a comparison, the neighboring Steam Islands Galaxy contains ### stars and the Heart Ribbon Galaxy contains ### stars. The Ion Galaxy may also contain perhaps a hundred thousand white dwarfs, ten thousand neutron stars, and a thousand or so black holes. Filling the space between the stars is a disk of gas and dust called the interstellar medium. This disk has at least a comparable extent in radius to the stars, whereas the thickness of the gas layer ranges from hundreds of light years for the colder gas to thousands of light years for warmer gas.

The Ion Dwarf Galaxy has two microsatellites, the Ion Otrazheniye E0-(R) Dwarf Galaxy at a distance of 30,000 ly (9.20 kpc) and the Malen'kiy Ion Otrazheniye SAd-(R) Dwarf Galaxy at a distance of 45,000 ly (13.8 kpc).