Milky Way Galaxy is the Galaxy which contains our solar system in which we all live. It contains too many stars nearly around 100–400 billion in it, all the stars which we see in the night through our eyes and the other stars which are not visible through our eyes spread-ed across the huge area of this galaxy. It is one of the oldest Galaxy found till yet and not only it is too old but it is also huge in size. To explain our galaxy much better to you in simplest way i have 9 facts about it so lets start one by one.
1# Every picture of milky way you have seen is not the real image of our galaxy !
It is not possible for any space ship to reach at the center and top of the milkyways galactic center from our solar system and take a photo of milky way because the distance is too great that even to reach at its center from our solar system it will take 26000 light years. So whatever you see in the picture named milky way is either the picture of other spiral galaxy present in our solar system named Andromeda (M31) or an artistic impression of milky way.
2# Our Milky Way is a Spiral Galaxy !
Yes our milky way is a spiral Galaxy in which all the stars and gas clouds are concentrate in more than one spiral arm, rotating around a black hole.
3# Milky Way consist of more than 100–400 billion stars !
Our milky way is so huge that it contains 100–400 billion stars spread-ed around its black hole or galactic center. If we want to go from one star to another placed at farthest end of the galaxy then it would take 100,000 light years to reach other star at the speed of light.
4# Our milky way is so huge !
Our milky way is the second largest galaxy in the Local group with a diameter of 100,000 – 180,000 light years and 2000 light years thick. The mass of the milky way is 0.8-1.5 X 10^12 solar masses.
5# Milky way contains a black hole in its center !
Our milky way contains a black hole and its not just a simple black hole but it is a super-massive black hole which is the largest type of black hole with a mass of 4.1 million solar masses and radius of about 6.7 billion Km. It is located in the center of our galaxy and continuously gulping or eating the stars and planets of our galaxy.
6# It is made by eating other galaxies !
Milky way was not what it looks like today but it is made from many different galaxies by acquiring their planets and stars into it such as Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and this process is still in progress by adding the star of closest galaxy Canis major dwarf in it.
7# Milky way is moving and rotating too fast !
The stars, planets and other object present in our galaxy are all rotating just like whirl at a speed of 220 KM/S and takes about 240 million years ( at the position of our sun ) to complete one revolution. The milky way galaxy is moving at a speed of 600 KM/S in space.
8# 90% of milky way is filled with dark matter !
Yes our galaxy contain 90% dark matter and the rest of 10% is stars, planets, moons, dust and clouds. That is why it has a halo but it is not visible directly. Dust and gas clouds present in the galaxy makes it look like milky in color because light gets scattered by the dust and gas cloud.
9# Milky way is the original member of the universe !
Yes our milky way is almost as old as The Universe. Milky ways age is 13.6 billion years which is slightly less then the age of universe which is 13.79 billion years. The oldest star in our galaxy is found in Globular cluster and the age of our milky way is determined by measuring the age of these stars.
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