Our home galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with four major arms containing young bright stars, gas, and dust. The mass of the Milky Way is estimated to be between 400 billion and one trillion times the mass of the Sun. The Milky Way's diameter is about 100,000 light-years, with the Sun orbiting about 27,000 light-years from the galactic center. However, most of the galaxy's mass consists of "dark matter" which encircles the Milky Way's disk in a vast halo. Dark matter may account for 90 percent of the Milky Way's mass.
Resources
Frequently Asked Questions:
Facts and Figures
The biggest, farthest and fastest in the...
Beyond the Solar System: Galaxies:
The Milky Way
The Milky Way consists of a bulge of stars in...
Radio Programs
Hercules Cloud
Piling up stars in the outer galaxy
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Cosmic Clocks
The ticking of cosmic clocks
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Snack Time
Snack time for a giant black hole
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Alien Clusters
Alien visitors from other galaxies
Friday, March 23, 2012
Robert Trumpler
Filling the space between the stars
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Thomas Wright
Giving birth to a galaxy
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
M2
An ancient family of stars
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Future Skies
The universe in the year one trillion
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Featured Images
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