In this article, we will look into 25 Most Frequently Asked Questions About the Milky Way Galaxy. But before we start let me ask a quick question - have you ever thought about where do we exactly exist in this whole Universe ? If not, then let me tell you we live in a planet which exists in a galaxy known as the Milky Way. There are number of galaxies in this entire Universe. Milky way is one such galaxy.
Thanks to our modern technologies which helps us in finding more and more information about our galaxy and other nearest galaxies. There are still lot of unanswered questions where research and findings are going on. For now we will focus on all the most frequently asked questions about the Milky way galaxy in below section. More about Milky way.
Most Frequently Asked Questions About the Milky Way Galaxy
Also Read: 30 Most Frequently Asked Questions About the White House
1. What is the Milky way ?
Ans. The Milky way is the Galaxy which inhabits our Solar System along with many other Stars and Planets.
2. How many stars are in the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. The Milky Way contains between 100-400 billion stars.
3. What Star is the oldest star in the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. According to a study, Methuselah Star is estimated to be more than 13.5 billion years old and is known to be oldest known star in the Milky way.
4. Where is earth in the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. Earth is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way (called the Orion Arm) which lies about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the Galaxy.
5. What is the velocity with which Milky way as a whole is moving ?
Ans. It is moving at a velocity of approximately 600 km per second with respect to extragalactic frames of reference.
6. How big is the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. The Radius of the Milky way is around 52,850 light years.
7. What is at the Center of the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. The central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which powers the compact radio source Sagittarius A*, which is almost exactly at the galactic rotational center.
8. How many solar systems in the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. Our planetary system is the only one officially called “solar system,” but astronomers have discovered more than 3,200 other stars with planets orbiting them in our galaxy.
9. How old is the Milky way ?
Ans. Approximately 13.51 billion years old
10. How many light years across is the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. Around 100,000 light years
11. What is the Closest Galaxy to the Milky way ?
Ans. Andromeda Galaxy
12. Where is the Sun located in the Milky way ?
Ans. The sun is about 1/3 the distance from the center of the Milky Way galaxy to its outer edges. It's located in a smaller spiral arm, between two large arms, called the Orion Arm.
13. How many planets are in the Milky way ?
Ans. The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion planets.
14. How many Black Holes are in the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. According to some Scientists estimates, there could be ten million to billion black holes in Milky way.
15. What shape is the Milky way ?
Ans. Spiral
16. Is the Milky way a spiral galaxy ?
Ans. Yes. It's called a spiral galaxy because if you could view it from the top or bottom, it would look like a spinning pinwheel.
17. What is the distance between Milky way and Andromeda Galaxy ?
Ans. Approximately 2.5 million light years
18. When will the Milky way and the Andromeda Galaxy collide ?
Ans. The latest study estimates that the two star groups will swoop closely past each other about 4.3 billion years from now and then fully merge about 6 billion years later.
19. What is Zone of Avoidance ?
Ans. The area of sky that the Milky Way obscures is called the Zone of Avoidance.
20. What is the mass of the Milky way as compared to Sun ?
Ans. The Milky Way is approximately 890 billion to 1.54 trillion times the mass of the Sun.
21. What constitutes the maximum mass of the Milky way Galaxy ?
Ans. Much of the mass of the Milky Way seems to be dark matter, an unknown and invisible form of matter that interacts gravitationally with ordinary matter.
22. What are the two major stellar arms of the Milky way ?
Ans. According to some scientists, the two major stellar arms of the Milky way are:-
- the Perseus arm, and
- the Scutum–Centaurus arm
23. How did Milky way obtained its Spiral Structure ?
Ans. A simulation published in 2011 suggested that the Milky Way may have obtained its spiral arm structure as a result of repeated collisions with the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy.
24. How many years it takes for Solar System to complete one orbit of the Milky way ?
Ans. It takes the Solar System about 240 million years to complete one orbit of the Milky Way
25. What is the Orbital Speed of the Solar System about the center of the Milky way ?
Ans. The orbital speed of the Solar System about the center of the Milky Way is approximately 220 km/s.