Milky Way

1. Its warped.

The milky modality is a disk astir(predicate) 120,000 light years across (see the Guide to Space bind on the diameter of the opaque focal point for more), with a of import bulge that has a diameter of 12,000 light years. The disk is distant from perfectly flat though, as can be seen in the picture below. What warped it? Two of the galaxys neighbors the rotund and Small Magellanic clouds have been pulling on the dark subject in the Milky Way like in a game of galactic tug-of-war. The tugging sets up a sort of h over frequency that pulls on the hydrogen gas (of which the Milky Way has lots of). Heres a more in-depth term on Universe Today about How the Milky Way got its Warp.
The warped Milky Way. Image credit:NASA/APOD

The warped Milky Way. Image credit:NASA/APOD

2. It has a donut, but you cant directly see it.

The Milky Way has a halo of dark matter that makes up over 90% of its mass. Yes, 90%. That means that all of what we can see (with the naked mettle or telescopes) makes up less than 10% of the mass of the Milky Way. Now, it doesnt have a halo like those ancient cartoon characters that die, sprout wings and play a harp in the clouds.



The halo is actually invisible, though we know it exists by running simulations of what the Milky Way would look like and how fast stars inside the galaxys disk orbit the center. The heavier it is, the hot they should be orbiting. If you assume that the galaxy is make up precisely of matter that we can see, then you get a rotary motion rate for the stars that is well below what it should be, so the rest is made up of what is elusively called dark matter, or matter that only interacts gravitationally (so far as we know) with normal matter.

To see nearly images of the probable dark matter density distribution in our galaxy, check out The Via Lactea Project.

3. It has over 200 billion stars

As galaxies go, the Milky Way is a middleweight. The largest galaxy known, IC 1101, has over 100 trillion stars, and other large...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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