Our Milky way Galaxy

Our Milky way Galaxy

There are hundreds of billions of Galaxies in which Milky way is one.

The Milky way in stars and dust image and copyright by - Serge Brunier

We live on a small planet that circles an insignificant star in a tiny part of huge, spiral star system- the Milky way galaxy. The Milky way was born more than 10 billion years ago, and is likely to exist for many more billions of years.

The Milky way is a barred spiral galaxy which means it is shaped like a giant Catherine wheel, with curved arms trailing behind as it turns. The stars in our galaxy all move around the centre as the galaxy spins. Our Sun, which is about 28,000 light years from the centre, goes around the galaxy once every 220 million years. Stars near take less time to orbit than the sun.

Here's the picture of our Milky way and our position in it.

THE HEART OF MILKY WAY

A look at the centre of our galaxy reveals hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a area of sky the width of a full moon. Near-infrared light which you can see is yellow in colour shows regions where stars are being born. Infrared light (red) reveals dust clouds, while X-rays (blue) show ultra- hot gas and emissions from black holes.

The centre of the Milky way is a mysterious place about 600 light years across. While this is just a tiny part of the galaxy, along with billion of stars. These include the remains of supernovas and bright source of X- rays as told above.

THE HIDDEN MONSTER

At the centre of our galaxy lies a monster: a giant black hole that contains about four million times more material that our Sun. This is Sagittarius A* (SGR A*) named after its location in the constellation Sagittarius. At the moment it is a sleeping giant, creating billion times less energy than giant black holes in other galaxies

ANCIENT STAR STREAMS

Not all of the material in the Milky way lies in a flat disc. Three narrow streams of stars have been found arcing high above the galaxy. They are between 13,000 and 13,000 light years from Earth and extend over much of the northern sky. The largest stream is thought to be the scattered remains of dwarf galaxy that collided with Milky way.

So guys this was the blog about our galaxy. Next blog will be on our Sun and our Solar system.

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