MILKY WAY | celestial

MILKY WAY GALAXY

Milky Way Galaxy, large spiral system consisting of several hundred billion stars, one of which is the Sun. It takes its name from the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band of stars and gas clouds that stretches across the sky as seen from Earth. Although Earth lies well within the Milky Way Galaxy (sometimes simply called the Galaxy), astronomers do not have as complete an understanding of its nature as they do of some external star systems. A thick layer of interstellar dust obscures much of the Galaxy from review by optical telescopes, and astronomers can determine its large-scale structure only with the aid of radio and infrared telescopes, which can detect the forms of radiation that penetrate the obscuring matter.

Type: Barred Spiral

Diameter: 100,000 - 180,000 ly

Distance to Galactic Centre: 27,000 ly

Mass: 800 - 1,500 M☉

Age: 13.6 Billion years

Number of Stars: 100 - 400 billion

Constellation: Sagittarius

Group: Local Group

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The Romans called our galaxy the Milky Road because it reminded them of milk. The Greeks called it the Milky Circle. In fact, the word “galaxy” is from the Greek word for milk.
When a person sees the Milky Way at night, they are seeing only about 0.0000025% of the galaxy’s hundreds of billions of stars.
In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was created when Hera spilled her milk while suckling Heracles. It was also described as the road to Mount Olympus, or the path of ruin made by the Helios’ (the sun god’s) chariot.
The center of the Milky Way has both the greatest concentration of stars and the most massive stars.
If the Milky Way had the same diameter as a Frisbee, the thickness of the disk would be about that of a sheet of paper.
Scientists believe that the Milky Way is consuming a small galaxy called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.

The Milky Way is a galaxy—a huge group of stars, gas, dust, and other matter held together in space by their mutual gravitational pull. The Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
The oldest star in the Milky Way is at least 13.6 billion years old and most likely formed shortly after the Big Bang.
The Milky Way rotates at a speed of 168 miles per second. So, the actual place in space where you were an hour ago is now roughly 600,000 miles away.
The sun and our solar system have orbited the galaxy fewer than 20 times since our solar system was born about 4.6 billion years ago. It has made 1/1250 of a revolution since the origin of humans.
The central bulge of the Milky Way is about 10,000 light-years thick.

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MILKY WAY GALAXY

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MILKY WAY GALAXY PROFILE

WANT MORE ABOUT MILKY WAY GALAXY?

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The Romans called our galaxy the Milky Road because it reminded them of milk. The Greeks called it the Milky Circle. In fact, the word “galaxy” is from the Greek word for milk.

When a person sees the Milky Way at night, they are seeing only about 0.0000025% of the galaxy’s hundreds of billions of stars.

In Greek mythology, the Milky Way was created when Hera spilled her milk while suckling Heracles. It was also described as the road to Mount Olympus, or the path of ruin made by the Helios’ (the sun god’s) chariot.

The center of the Milky Way has both the greatest concentration of stars and the most massive stars.

If the Milky Way had the same diameter as a Frisbee, the thickness of the disk would be about that of a sheet of paper.

Scientists believe that the Milky Way is consuming a small galaxy called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.

The Milky Way is a galaxy—a huge group of stars, gas, dust, and other matter held together in space by their mutual gravitational pull. The Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.

The oldest star in the Milky Way is at least 13.6 billion years old and most likely formed shortly after the Big Bang.

The Milky Way rotates at a speed of 168 miles per second. So, the actual place in space where you were an hour ago is now roughly 600,000 miles away.

The sun and our solar system have orbited the galaxy fewer than 20 times since our solar system was born about 4.6 billion years ago. It has made 1/1250 of a revolution since the origin of humans.

The central bulge of the Milky Way is about 10,000 light-years thick.