No one has every seen our galaxy because the furthest probe we have out there just passed Pluto! But astronomers have gotten some pretty good pictures of the Orion Arm where our Solar System is. They use an "array" of telescopes. From Hawaii, to Puerto Rico, to China, to India they take pictures and then merge them together and the view is AMAZING!
A few facts about our galaxy:
1. Astronomers believe we live in a "barred" galaxy with spiral arms.
2. From the edge to the center is 27 light years.
3. From edge to edge or the whole diameter of the galaxy is 180,000 light years wide.
4. Our Universe formed after the Big Bang, and our galaxy formed close after that.
5. Our galaxy has gobbled up mass from other galaxies, specifically the Magellanic Cloud Group.
An artist rendering of the Milky Way:
The closest galaxy to us is the Andromeda Galaxy and scientists believe our galaxy may start gobbling that one up, but not for another 5 billion years! So we are good!
Watch where we are in the Milky Way:
So I sorta broke my patella, but I'm still keeping track of who is watching the blog. No candy will be withheld because of my injury...
I hope you can get better soon and I think our solar system looks super cool.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rachel, I'm trying :)
DeleteOur Galaxy looks amazing!🌌
ReplyDeleteTrump can't guarantee that.
ReplyDeletegalaxys are so interesting!
ReplyDelete