Milky Way

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name comes from the faint, cloudy band of light visible in the night sky. In ancient times, people believed it was a “milky river” in the heavens - hence the name.

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, consisting of a central bulge (a dense cluster of stars at the center), a bar, spiral arms, and a surrounding halo. Its diameter is about 100,000 light-years, and it contains over 100 billion stars.

Our Solar System is located on the edge of one of the spiral arms - the Orion Arm - about 27,000 light-years from the galactic center.

The Milky Way is not stationary - all stars, including the Sun, orbit around the galaxy’s center. Our Sun completes one full orbit in approximately 225 to 250 million years. One such orbit is called a “galactic year.”

The Milky Way is just one of an estimated two trillion galaxies in the Universe!

The galaxy also interacts with other galaxies, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which are its satellite galaxies. In the distant future (about 4 billion years from now), the Milky Way is expected to merge with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy.

P.S. Image attribution: Image by WikiImages from Pixabay