Is the Milky Way small medium or large?

The Milky Way is only a medium sized galaxy with an estimated 200 billion stars. The largest galaxy we know of is called IC 1101 and has over 100 trillion stars.

Is the Milky Way a medium sized galaxy?

Size and mass



The Milky Way is the second-largest galaxy in the Local Group (after the Andromeda Galaxy), with its stellar disk approximately 170,000–200,000 light-years (52–61 kpc) in diameter and, on average, approximately 1,000 ly (0.3 kpc) thick.

What is the Milky Way smaller than?

Although its diameter has been supersized, the Milky Way is still smaller than its neighbor Andromeda, which measures over 220,000 light-years across.

Is the Milky Way small compared to other galaxies?

The Milky Way is an averagely large galaxy with a diameter of 100 000 light years and about 200 billion to 400 billion stars; but compared to larger galaxies like M100, M 87, NGC 4921 or Hercules A, the Milky Way looks like a dwarf galaxy.

What part of the Milky Way are we in?

Orion-Cygnus Arm

We’re about 26,000 light-years from the center of the galaxy, on the inner edge of the Orion-Cygnus Arm. It’s sandwiched by two primary spiral arms, the Sagittarius and Perseus Arms.

Which direction is the Milky Way?

The milky way rises in the southeast, crosses the southern horizon, and then sets in the southwest. So you will want to choose a viewing site that does not have any major cities in that direction. Even if the sky overhead is very dark, a light dome from a city can ruin the view if it is located to your south.

How do we know what Milky Way looks like?

The clues we have to the shape of the Milky Way are: 1) When you look toward the Galactic Center with your eye, you see a long, thin strip. This suggests a disk seen edge-on, rather than a ellipsoid or another shape. We can also detect the bulge at the center.

How do we know what the Milky Way looks like from the outside?

Video quote: Since we see the Milky Way as a band across the sky that means it's more like a disk. And the fact that the band is pretty narrow. Means that the solar system must be near the plane of the disk.

What does the inside of the Milky Way look like?

Video quote: Center the milky way received its name because it appeared to ancient observers to be a milky band of light a cosmic roadway stretching across the night sky.

Can you see Milky Way with naked eye?

From Earth, it can be seen as a hazy form of stars in the night sky that the naked eye can barely notice. You can see the Milky Way all year, no matter where you are in the world. It’s visible just so long as the sky is clear and the light pollution is minimal.

Does the Milky Way orbit anything?

“The Moon orbits the Earth, the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, but does our galaxy orbit anything?” Our galaxy does indeed! The Milky Way is one of two large galaxies that make up what’s called the Local Group, which contains some fifty-odd galaxies.

Is black hole in Milky Way?

It’s now well known that supermassive black holes are common in the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. They have millions or billions of times our sun’s mass.

What is the smallest black hole?

the Unicorn

As reported by Reuters, the smallest black hole “the Unicorn” has been located about 1,500 light-years from Earth. It has also been discovered that a luminous star called a red giant orbits with the black hole in a so-called binary star system named V723 Mon.

Can a wormhole exist?

Einstein’s theory of general relativity mathematically predicts the existence of wormholes, but none have been discovered to date. A negative mass wormhole might be spotted by the way its gravity affects light that passes by.

What is a white hole in space?

White holes are theoretical cosmic regions that function in the opposite way to black holes. Just as nothing can escape a black hole, nothing can enter a white hole. White holes were long thought to be a figment of general relativity born from the same equations as their collapsed star brethren, black holes.

What would happen if a black hole hit a white hole?

Video quote: It completely swallows the white hole.

Is time stopped in a black hole?

Near a black hole, the slowing of time is extreme. From the viewpoint of an observer outside the black hole, time stops. For example, an object falling into the hole would appear frozen in time at the edge of the hole.

What is a black hole in space?

A black hole is an area of such immense gravity that nothing—not even light—can escape from it. Black holes form at the end of some stars’ lives. The energy that held the star together disappears and it collapses in on itself producing a magnificent explosion.

What would you see if you fell into a black hole?

You would be able to see out from inside, but no-one would be able to see you because any light would fall back on you. The good news is that although the gravitational pull is much stronger than smaller black holes, the stretching tidal force is less, meaning you won’t be turned into spaghetti.

Will the sun become a black hole?

No. Stars like the Sun just aren’t massive enough to become black holes. Instead, in several billion years, the Sun will cast off its outer layers, and its core will form a white dwarf – a dense ball of carbon and oxygen that no longer produces nuclear energy, but that shines because it is very hot.

How would a flashing red light appear as it fell into a black hole?

Viewed from a distance, how would a flashing red light appear as it fell into a black hole? It would appear to flash more quickly.

How much would a teaspoon of white dwarf material weigh on Earth?

5.5 tons

According to NASA, a teaspoon of white dwarf matter would weigh 5.5 tons on Earth — about the same as an elephant! Smaller stars, however, will take a slightly more sedate path. Low- to medium-mass stars, such as the sun, will eventually swell up into red giants.

Is a quasar a black hole?

Quasars are highly luminous objects in the early universe, thought to be powered by supermassive black holes. This illustration shows a wide accretion disk around a black hole, and depicts an extremely high-velocity wind, flowing at some 20% of light-speed, found in the vicinity of JO313-1806.