Interesting Facts About MILKY WAY GALAXY

Our Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky. Here are some interesting facts about our Galaxy :-

1. Most galaxies have a black hole at the center. Ours is no exception. The center of our galaxy is called SAGITTARIUS A, and it houses a black hole with a mass of 40,000 Suns that is 14 million miles across.

2. Milky way galaxy contains of more than 200 billions stars.

3. Diameter of our galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years. The largest neighboring galaxy to Milky Way is Andromeda galaxy.

4. The oldest star in Milky way galaxy is 13.2 billion years old which is known as HE 1523. it is almost as old as the Universe itself.
5. The Milky Way belongs to group of barred spiral galaxies, which means that it is a spiral galaxy with a bar-shaped structure that consists of billions of stars.

6. The Milky Way has a halo of dark matter that makes up over 90% of its mass.

7. The Milky Way is full of dust and gas. The dust and gas makes up a whopping 10-15% of the “normal matter” in the galaxy6

8. The Milky Way wasn’t always as it is today, a beautiful barred spiral. It became its current size and shape by eating up other galaxies. It’s still doing so today – the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way because its stars are currently being added to the Milky Way’s disk, and our galaxy has consumed others in its long history, such as the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy.

9. The Milky Way, along with everything else, is moving through space.The Earth moves around the Sun, the Sun around the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is part of the Local Group, which is moving relative to the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation

10. Neighboring Andromeda Galaxy is approaching our galaxy at speed somewhere around 100 to 140 kilometers per second, which means that The Milky Way may collide with Andromeda galaxy in 3 to 4 billion years.


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