Below we have 10 amazing things about the Milky Way Galaxy!
Barred Spiral Galaxy. It has a band of stars in its centre which makes it different from a Typical Spiral Galaxy.
2)Supermassive Black Hole-
In its centre lies Sagittarius A*, a Supermassive Black Hole with the mass of 4.6 million suns!!!
3)Age-
Some astronomers say that the Milky Way Galaxy is 800 million years old , while some believe that it is 13.5 billion years old!
4)Size-
Its's diameter is considered to be 120,000 light years! In simple terms , it takes light 120,000 years to go from one end of the galaxy to the other! The thickness of the disc is assumed to be 1,000 light years.
5)Number of Stars-
There are between 100 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy! At night there are about 2,500 stars visible to the naked eye , considering there is no pollution.
6)Death-
The Milky Way is set to collide with the neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy in 4 billion years.There is a 12% chance that our Solar System will be ejected from the merged galaxy.
Below is a simulation of that happening.
In the simulation the blue galaxy is our Milky Way. While the yellow one is Andromeda.
Note: This simulation is running with the speed of 1 Million years per second.
7)Galactic Year-
It is the amount of time taken for our Solar System to orbit the Milky Way. 1 orbit takes 226 million years! Just 0.0008 orbits have been completed since humans evolved from apes.
8)The Drake Equation-
The Drake Equation is used to estimate the number of intelligent alien species in the galaxy. Recent calculations indicate somewhere between 0 to 15,786 potential alien societies.
9)So much Alcohol-
The Milky Way galaxy contains Sagittarius B2 cloud which has 10 billion , billion, billion litres of alcohol!!
It may also smell like rum and taste like raspberries as it contains ethyl formate.
10)Earth's twin-
The most Earth like planet in the galaxy was discovered in 2014 and is called Kepler-186f. It is 10 % bigger than Earth and is in the habitable zone , it could have liquid water !
1) Shape -
There are 4 types of galaxies. Elliptical, Lenticular, Irregular and Spiral. The Milky Way is aBarred Spiral Galaxy. It has a band of stars in its centre which makes it different from a Typical Spiral Galaxy.
2)Supermassive Black Hole-
In its centre lies Sagittarius A*, a Supermassive Black Hole with the mass of 4.6 million suns!!!
3)Age-
Some astronomers say that the Milky Way Galaxy is 800 million years old , while some believe that it is 13.5 billion years old!
4)Size-
Its's diameter is considered to be 120,000 light years! In simple terms , it takes light 120,000 years to go from one end of the galaxy to the other! The thickness of the disc is assumed to be 1,000 light years.
5)Number of Stars-
There are between 100 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy! At night there are about 2,500 stars visible to the naked eye , considering there is no pollution.
6)Death-
The Milky Way is set to collide with the neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy in 4 billion years.There is a 12% chance that our Solar System will be ejected from the merged galaxy.
Below is a simulation of that happening.
In the simulation the blue galaxy is our Milky Way. While the yellow one is Andromeda.
7)Galactic Year-
It is the amount of time taken for our Solar System to orbit the Milky Way. 1 orbit takes 226 million years! Just 0.0008 orbits have been completed since humans evolved from apes.
8)The Drake Equation-
The Drake Equation is used to estimate the number of intelligent alien species in the galaxy. Recent calculations indicate somewhere between 0 to 15,786 potential alien societies.
9)So much Alcohol-
The Milky Way galaxy contains Sagittarius B2 cloud which has 10 billion , billion, billion litres of alcohol!!
It may also smell like rum and taste like raspberries as it contains ethyl formate.
10)Earth's twin-
The most Earth like planet in the galaxy was discovered in 2014 and is called Kepler-186f. It is 10 % bigger than Earth and is in the habitable zone , it could have liquid water !
Wow , the simulation was nice . can you tell me the software that you used for the simulation?
ReplyDeletethanks , the software is Universe Sandbox 2
ReplyDeleteThe ninety one was funny so I like it the most
ReplyDeleteBy Tashmeet