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Physical Environment > Milky Way Galaxy |
This site tells the story of the history of the universe. Click Earlier and Later to follow the story. Note: Many facts have been simplified to make them easier to understand. |
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The galaxy in which we live is probably a typical spiral galaxy, although recent research shows it has a small bar across the center, making it a barred spiral. It is an island of tens of billions of stars together with gas and dust.
It is roughly the shape of a "flying saucer", with a bulge in the middle of a flat disc. Stars and dust are arranged into spirals within the disc, which measures about 100,000 light years across. Ancient globular star clusters form a halo around the Galaxy. We live near a star (the Sun) roughly half way out along the disc. When we look at the night sky we can see a mass of distant stars in the disc, partly hidden by clouds of dust. These stars we call the Milky Way, and this is how our galaxy gets its name. It is sometimes just called the Galaxy. The Milky Way is the second largest galaxy in the small cluster to which it belongs. It was discovered in 1994 that there is a small galaxy which is in the process of colliding with the Milky Way. It is called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. It lies on the other side of the Milky Way from the Earth, so it is completely hidden from view by the clouds of gas and dust in the plane of the Galaxy. We have no idea what effect this collision has had or will have upon life on Earth. |
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Physical Environment > Milky Way Galaxy |
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Basic Information |
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