What kind of object do we think lies at the center of the Milky Way galaxy?

What kind of object do we think lies at the center of the Milky Way galaxy quizlet?

The orbits of stars in the center of the galaxy indicate that the presence of 3 to 4 million solar mass object in a region no larger than our Solar System. How does the diameter of the disk of Milky Way Galaxy compare to its thickness?

What kind of object we think lies in the center of the Milky Way galaxy?

At the center of the Milky Way sits a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. With a mass equal to that of four million suns, the black hole, discovered in 1974, can be observed in the sky with radio telescopes close to the constellation Sagittarius.

What lies in the center of galaxies?

The Galactic Center (or Galactic Centre) is the rotational center, the barycenter, of the Milky Way galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which powers Sagittarius A*, a compact radio source which is almost exactly at the galactic rotational center.

What do we think resides in the center of our galaxy that is in Sgr A *)?

The supermassive black hole that lurks at the center of our galaxy, called Sgr A*, has a mass of about 4 million times that of our Sun. A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that neither particles or light can escape from it. Surrounding Sgr A* is a dense cluster of stars.

How massive is the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy quizlet?

The radius of the disk and its orbital velocity can be plugged into Kepler’s 3rd law to give the mass of the black hole. The mass is 6.6 x 10^9 solar masses, one of the most massive black holes ever found. The nucleus of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is also a weak Active Galactic Nucleus.

How do the stars orbit the center of the galaxy quizlet?

How do disk stars orbit the center of the galaxy? They all orbit in roughly the same plane and in the same direction. They follow spiral paths along the spiral arms. They follow orbits that move up and down through the disk, typically taking them about 50,000 light-years above and below the disk on each orbit.

Do halo stars orbit around the center of the galaxy?

Stars in the inner halo have highly radial orbits, plunging toward the galactic center and traveling back out again.

Why do astronomers hypothesize that a massive black hole lies at the center of M87?

Why do astronomers hypothesize that a massive black hole lies at the center of M87? A very small region at the center of M87 releases an enormous amount of energy. You just studied 18 terms!

How do galaxies like the Milky Way form quizlet?

Our galaxy formed from a cloud of intergalactic gas. Halo stars formed first as gravity caused gas to contract. Remaining gas settled into a spinning disk. Stars continuously form in disk as galaxy grows older.

What does our Milky Way galaxy consist of quizlet?

The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral galaxy consisting of a thin disk about 100,000 light years in diameter with a central bulge and a spherical halo that surrounds the disk. The disk contains an interstellar medium of gas and dust, while the halo contains only a small amount of hot gas and virtually no cold gas.

What type of galaxy is our Milky Way quizlet?

The spiral galaxy in which the Sun resides. The disk of our Galaxy is visible in the night sky as a faint band of light known as the Milky Way.

Where do most stars form in galaxies like the Milky Way quizlet?

Where do stars tend to form in our galaxy? Active star-forming regions, marked by the presence of hot, massive stars and ionization nebulae, are found preferentially in spiral arms.

Where does most star formation take place in the Milky Way?

Where does most star formation occur in the Milky Way galaxy today? In the spiral arms.

Where does most star formation occur in the Milky Way galaxy today?

spiral arms

10) Most of the current star formation in the Milky Way occurs in spiral arms.

What objects are found in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy quizlet?

The Milky Way’s disk is 100,000 light years across and 1,000 light years thick. It contains mostly young stars, gas and dust, which are concentrated in spiral arms. Some old stars are also present. The spiral arms are curved extensions that begin at the bulge of a spiral galaxy, giving it a “pinwheel” appearance.

What kinds of objects lie in the halo of a spiral galaxy?

The stellar halo is a nearly spherical population of field stars and globular clusters. It surrounds most disk galaxies as well as some elliptical galaxies of type cD.

What kind of stars lie in the halo of our galaxy?

Halo stars are made entirely of hydrogen and helium with no heavy elements. What evidence suggests that the protogalactic cloud that formed the Milky Way resulted from several collisions among smaller clouds?

Which objects are scattered throughout the galactic halo that surrounds the Milky Way?

galactic halo, in astronomy, nearly spherical volume of thinly scattered stars, globular clusters of stars, and tenuous gas observed surrounding spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way—the galaxy in which the Earth is located.

What evidence now exists for a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy?

What evidence now exists for a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy? the very high orbital speed of ionized gas clouds close to the galactic center.

Why is it so hard to study the center of our galaxy?

Yet, whatever has happened in the center of our own galaxy is hard to study, despite its relative proximity to Earth, because, as Wang explains, it is obscured by a dense fog of gas and dust. Researchers simply can’t see the center, even with an instrument as powerful as the famous Hubble Space Telescope.

Why can’t we see the Milky Way from Earth?

A new study finds that one third of humanity cannot see the Milky Way because of artificial light pollution. If you look up on a pitch black, cloudless night, you might be able to see the rest of our galaxy, the Milky Way, stretching across the sky.

Can you see the Milky Way from Earth without a telescope?

If someone unfamiliar with it sees a picture of the milky way without a terrestrial reference point, they might assume it was taken with a telescope. But the scale of the milky way is huge! You don’t need a telescope to see or photograph it.

Can you see the Milky Way from Earth?

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.

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.

Are there any real pictures of the Milky Way galaxy?

We can only take pictures of the Milky Way from inside the galaxy, which means we don’t have an image of the Milky Way as a whole.