Universe Fact: Milky way (Our Galaxy)

Milky Way Galaxy

Milky Way(From Earth)

The Milky Way[ is the galaxy that contains our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactic, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (galaxias kilos, "milky circle"). From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers, Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated visible diameter of 1.9 million light-years ( ly ), give or take 0.4 million light-years. It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and at least that number of planets. The dark matter halo around the Milky Way may span as much as 2 million light-years. The Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The galactic center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole of 4.100(=0.034)million solar masses.

The milky way Galaxy Contains over 200 million star, and enough dust and gas to make billion more. The solar system lies about 30000 light-years from galactic center and about 20 light-years above the plane of the galaxy More than half the stars found in the Milky Way Are older Than the 4.5 billion-year-old Sun.

Nearest Galaxies

More than one Galaxies in the Universe and Our Universe is infinite. The Biggest Known Galaxy is IC 1101, which is 50 times the Milky way's size. The nearest Galaxies are LMC and Antlia 2 It is about 5.5 million light-years across. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest big galaxy to our Milky Way. At 2.5 million light-years, it's the most distant thing you can see with the eye alone.

-> List of nearest Galaxy :

1. Canis Major Dwarf

2. Draco II

3. Tucana III

4. Sagittarius Dwarf Sphr

5. LWC

6. Antlia 2

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Milky Way Galaxy

Solar System