The Milky Way Galaxy is really neat! When we compare it to other galaxies, things get even more exciting. Here are some ways our galaxy measures up against others:
Size and Shape: The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. This means it looks like a flat disk with a bar-shaped group of stars in the center. It’s about 100,000 light-years wide and has around 200 to 400 billion stars. Some galaxies, like IC 1101, are much bigger. IC 1101 is about 6 million light-years across and has trillions of stars!
Different Shapes: Galaxies can look different. They can be spiral, elliptical, or irregular. Our Milky Way has the classic spiral shape. Elliptical galaxies look like smooth, round blobs with no special features. Irregular galaxies, like the Large Magellanic Cloud (which orbits us), look messy and don’t have a clear shape.
Making New Stars: The Milky Way creates stars at a steady rate of about one to three new stars each year. But some galaxies, like M82, are super busy and can create stars more than ten times faster! It's like a summer festival of new stars!
Dark Matter: Like many galaxies, the Milky Way is thought to have dark matter around it. This dark matter is about three times heavier than what we can actually see in the galaxy. Many galaxies have dark matter, but how much and how it acts can differ from galaxy to galaxy.
Age: The Milky Way is really old, around 13.6 billion years! There are even older galaxies out there, some from when the universe was very young, but our galaxy has been around for a long time and has plenty of stories to tell.
So, the Milky Way is a cool place filled with exciting things, but it’s just one of billions of galaxies. Each one has its own special features and stories waiting for us to discover!
The Milky Way Galaxy is really neat! When we compare it to other galaxies, things get even more exciting. Here are some ways our galaxy measures up against others:
Size and Shape: The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. This means it looks like a flat disk with a bar-shaped group of stars in the center. It’s about 100,000 light-years wide and has around 200 to 400 billion stars. Some galaxies, like IC 1101, are much bigger. IC 1101 is about 6 million light-years across and has trillions of stars!
Different Shapes: Galaxies can look different. They can be spiral, elliptical, or irregular. Our Milky Way has the classic spiral shape. Elliptical galaxies look like smooth, round blobs with no special features. Irregular galaxies, like the Large Magellanic Cloud (which orbits us), look messy and don’t have a clear shape.
Making New Stars: The Milky Way creates stars at a steady rate of about one to three new stars each year. But some galaxies, like M82, are super busy and can create stars more than ten times faster! It's like a summer festival of new stars!
Dark Matter: Like many galaxies, the Milky Way is thought to have dark matter around it. This dark matter is about three times heavier than what we can actually see in the galaxy. Many galaxies have dark matter, but how much and how it acts can differ from galaxy to galaxy.
Age: The Milky Way is really old, around 13.6 billion years! There are even older galaxies out there, some from when the universe was very young, but our galaxy has been around for a long time and has plenty of stories to tell.
So, the Milky Way is a cool place filled with exciting things, but it’s just one of billions of galaxies. Each one has its own special features and stories waiting for us to discover!