The Milky Way
Galaxy in Itself
Created By: Elise Liegel
The Milky Way/How Big it is
The Milky Way is a galaxy that contains sun, Earth, and other objects in our solar system. It appears as milky looking-a band of starlight. It is shaped like a thin disk with a bulge in the center. It is massive; the diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light years. It has a disk; the disk is very flat and the thickness is about 10,000 light years. It contains an inner, outer halo, young stars or irregularly shaped groups of stars (open/glactic clusters). The total mass is hundreds of billions to one trillion times that of the sun. Most of the mass is spread out among the disk. The bulge in the center is a vast thick bar of stars. The bar stretches for about 27,000 light years.
What the Milky Way Contains
The Milky Way contains stars, dust, gas and planets. The stars, dust and gas fan out from the center of the bulge. With large curving arms, they form a spiral pattern. It resembles a pinwheel. The inner halo (inside the disk) orbits in the same direction as the disk. The outer halo orbits in the opposite direction. The halos include many of the oldest stars in the galaxy, globular clusters, and dense, spherical systems containing a few hundred thousand old stars. It also has about ten smaller galaxies that orbit it like satellites revolving around a planet.
The Center of the Galaxy
There are stars and clusters that orbit the center of the galaxy. All of the stars on the entire galacy orbit in the same direction. The Sun completes an almost circular orbit of the center about every 240 million years.
Facts & What is Expected in the Future
-The name refers to part of the galaxy that can be seen with the unaided eye.-Appears to circle us in one year. What was the most interesting to me that I found out was that, the Milky Way is soon to have a 'makeover.' It is called the Titanic Collusion, and is supposed to happen in the next four billion years. The collusion will include it's neighboring Andromed galaxy and the Milky Way. The Sun will be flung into a new region of our galaxy.
My Sources
1. Morris, Mark. World Book . M. 2013. Print. Astronomers, NASA. "Feature of Milky Way." 2. NASA. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. http://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/hubble/science/milky-way-collide.html. 3. Wethington, Nicholas. "Facts About the Milky Way." Universe Today. 11 July 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. http://www.nasa.gov/mission-pages/hubble/science/milky-way-collide.html. 4. Box, Symmetry The Milky Way. 2012. Digital Art. deviantart. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/260/3/e/the_milky_way_by_symmetrybox-d5ez8c6.png. 5. Milky Way Galaxy. The Universe Within 50,000 Light Years. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galaxy.html.