The Milky Way is part of a giant cluster of stars visible from Earth - our Galaxy, one of hundreds of billions of other similar systems. Together they form the universe.

If you look at the stars on a clear moonless night somewhere far from the city lights, then you can clearly see a bright band crossing the sky - the Milky Way. In fact, this is the light of many stars that make up our galaxy.

Scientific studies have proven that what the ancient poets called the spilled milk of the goddess Hera and the road to paradise, turned out to be part of a huge structure that is visible to us with a diameter of about 100 thousand light years, consisting of billions of stars, interstellar matter, nebulae and other celestial bodies. Our solar system is also part of the Milky Way.

Our star neighbors

In other words, the Milky Way is nothing but our Galaxy, which we look at from the inside and, moreover, “from the edge”. Visible from Earth more stars in the Milky Way band than outside it. Due to our position on the periphery of the Galaxy, on clear nights we have the opportunity to observe its densest regions.

We live in the solar system, and in addition to our luminary, the Galaxy is inhabited by more than 200 billion other stars. They form a star system with a spiral structure. From the side, it resembles a disk. If one looks from the Earth in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the disk, there will be very few stars in the field of view. The disk itself is visible as a milky-white stripe crossing the sky. When viewed in a direction parallel to the plane of the disk, a huge number of densely packed stars are visible, behind which is a large part of the Galaxy.

To the center of the Galaxy 28,360 light years

It was difficult for astronomers to determine the shape of our Galaxy and the position of its center, since much of the visible radiation from stars on the way to Earth is absorbed by interstellar gas and cosmic dust. Exploring the spheroidal halo surrounding the disk of the Galaxy, astronomers have discovered globular star clusters. Each cluster contains up to several million stars - relics of the era when the disk in the Galaxy has not yet formed. By determining the position of these clusters, scientists were able to calculate where the center of the Galaxy is. It turned out that it is located in the constellation Sagittarius at a distance of 28,360 light years from us.

Halo, sleeves and bulge

Like other spiral galaxies, the Milky Way has a center from which arms spiral out like a fireworks wheel. There is a dense thickening (bulge) in the center of the Galaxy. The galactic nucleus is the most central part of the bulge. The diameter of the bulge is about 20,000 light years, and the thickness of the disk at this point is about 3,200 light years.

Although the core is a very difficult object to study, it is clear that colossal energy is concentrated in it. Therefore, it is of great interest to astrophysicists. Scientists have put forward many hypotheses to describe its structure and evolution. One of them draws especially terrible picture: the high density of stars in the bulge region can lead to gravitational collapse and the formation of supermassive black holes, which will be drawn into the surrounding matter.

The arms of the Galaxy contain many stars of the different ages: old, very bright and young and not even born yet. Due to the strong gravitational force, the density of matter in the arms is increased. The solar system, of which our tiny planet is also a part, is located in one of these spiral arms - the Orion Arm.

Therefore, the entire galaxy is not visible from Earth. Just as the Earth revolves around the Sun, the Solar System also revolves around the center of the Galaxy in the company of many other stars. All this large, complex structure is only an insignificant part of an even more extensive and complex structure - the Universe.

Variety of galaxies

The successes achieved in the creation of astronomical instruments and tools have made it possible to study many areas of the sky in detail, including numerous nebulae. Previously, it was completely unknown what they were. It was assumed that these could be globular clusters (dense spherical groups consisting of hundreds of thousands of old stars), remnants of stars, gas clouds, and possibly other galaxies. But with the advent of more advanced telescopes, against the background of millions and millions of stars captured on photographic plates, galaxies began to appear more and more clearly. Now astronomers have learned to determine their size and distance from the Earth.

According to their shape, galaxies are classified into spiral (with arms running in a spiral from the center), barred spiral (with arms extending from the ends of the bar - a highly elongated core), elliptical and irregular (having no definite shape). Each individual galaxy has up to several hundred billion stars. By measuring the distance to galaxies, one can determine the nature of their mutual arrangement in space. It turned out that galaxies form clusters, which in turn combine into superclusters. So-called stellar population types have been identified: population I stars, generally younger, are located in the disk of the galaxy, while older population II stars are found in spheroidal halo and globular clusters.

There are more galaxies in the universe than there are stars in our galaxy. Stars are the basic elements from which they are built. Each galaxy consists of about 100 billion of these "bricks", and hundreds of billions of galaxies, in turn, form the Universe. So the Milky Way is an extremely small part of the vast and complex universe.

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The Milky Way Galaxy is very majestic, beautiful. This huge world- our Motherland, our solar system. All the stars and other objects that are visible to the naked eye in the night sky are our galaxy. Although there are some objects that are located in the Andromeda Nebula - a neighbor of our Milky Way.

Description of the Milky Way

The Milky Way galaxy is huge, 100 thousand light years in size, and, as you know, one light year is equal to 9460730472580 km. Our solar system is located at a distance of 27,000 light years from the center of the galaxy, in one of the arms, which is called the Orion arm.

Our solar system revolves around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This happens in the same way that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The solar system makes a complete revolution in 200 million years.

Deformation

The Milky Way galaxy looks like a disk with a bulge in the center. It's not in perfect shape. On one side there is a bend to the north of the center of the galaxy, and on the other it goes down, then turns to the right. Outwardly, such a deformation is somewhat reminiscent of a wave. The disk itself is warped. This is due to the presence of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds nearby. They orbit the Milky Way very quickly - this was confirmed by the Hubble telescope. These two dwarf galaxies are often referred to as satellites of the Milky Way. The clouds create a gravitationally bound system that is very heavy and quite massive due to the heavy elements in the mass. It is assumed that they are like a tug of war between galaxies, creating vibrations. The result is a deformation of the Milky Way galaxy. The structure of our galaxy is special, it has a halo.

Scientists believe that in billions of years the Milky Way will be swallowed up by the Magellanic Clouds, and after some more time it will be swallowed up by Andromeda.

Halo

Wondering what kind of galaxy the Milky Way is, scientists began to study it. They managed to find out that for 90% of its mass it consists of dark matter, which causes a mysterious halo. Everything that is visible to the naked eye from the Earth, namely that luminous matter, is about 10% of the galaxy.

Numerous studies have confirmed that the Milky Way has a halo. Scientists have compiled various models that take into account the invisible part and without it. After the experiments, the opinion was put forward that if there were no halo, then the speed of the planets and other elements of the Milky Way would be less than now. Because of this feature, it was suggested that most of the components consist of an invisible mass or dark matter.

Number of stars

One of the most unique is the galaxy Milky Way. The structure of our galaxy is unusual, it has more than 400 billion stars. About a quarter of them are large stars. Note: other galaxies have fewer stars. There are about ten billion stars in the Cloud, some others consist of a billion, and in the Milky Way there are more than 400 billion very different stars, and only a small part, about 3000, is visible from Earth. It is impossible to say exactly how many stars are in the Milky Way, because how the galaxy is constantly losing objects due to their transformation into supernovae.

Gases and dust

Approximately 15% of the galaxy is dust and gases. Maybe because of them our galaxy is called the Milky Way? Despite its huge size, we can see about 6,000 light-years ahead, but the size of the galaxy is 120,000 light-years. Maybe it is more, but even the most powerful telescopes cannot see beyond this. This is due to the accumulation of gas and dust.

The thickness of the dust does not allow visible light to pass through, but infrared light passes through it, and scientists can create maps of the starry sky.

What was before

According to scientists, our galaxy has not always been like this. The Milky Way was created from the merger of several other galaxies. This giant captured other planets, areas, which had a strong influence on the size and shape. Even now, planets are being captured by the Milky Way galaxy. An example of this is the objects Big Dog- a dwarf galaxy located near our Milky Way. Canis stars are periodically added to our universe, and from ours they pass to other galaxies, for example, there is an exchange of objects with the Sagittarius galaxy.

view of the milky way

No scientist, astronomer can say for sure what our Milky Way looks like from above. This is due to the fact that the Earth is located in the Milky Way galaxy, 26,000 light-years from the center. Due to this location, it is not possible to take pictures of the entire Milky Way. Therefore, any image of a galaxy is either a snapshot of other visible galaxies, or someone else's fantasy. And we can only guess what it actually looks like. There is even a possibility that we now know as much about it as the ancient people who considered the Earth to be flat.

Center

The center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A * - a great source of radio waves, suggesting that there is a huge black hole at the very heart. According to assumptions, its dimensions are a little more than 22 million kilometers, and this is the hole itself.

All the matter that tries to get into the hole forms a huge disk, almost 5 million times the size of our Sun. But even such a pulling force does not prevent new stars from forming at the edge of a black hole.

Age

According to estimates of the composition of the Milky Way galaxy, it was possible to establish an estimated age of about 14 billion years. Age of the old star- a little over 13 billion years. The age of a galaxy is calculated by determining the age of the oldest star and the phases preceding its formation. Based on the available data, scientists have suggested that our universe is about 13.6-13.8 billion years old.

First, the bulge of the Milky Way was formed, then its middle part, in the place of which a black hole subsequently formed. Three billion years later, a disk with sleeves appeared. Gradually, it changed, and only about ten billion years ago did it begin to look like it does now.

We are part of something bigger

All the stars in the Milky Way galaxy are part of a larger galactic structure. We are part of the Virgo Supercluster. The nearest galaxies to the Milky Way, such as the Magellanic Cloud, Andromeda and other fifty galaxies, are one cluster, the Virgo Supercluster. A supercluster is a group of galaxies that covers a huge area. And this is only a small part of the stellar neighborhood.

The Virgo Supercluster contains more than a hundred groups of clusters over 110 million light-years across. The Virgo cluster itself is a small part of the Laniakea supercluster, and it, in turn, is part of the Pisces-Cetus complex.

Rotation

Our Earth moves around the Sun, making a complete revolution in 1 year. Our Sun revolves in the Milky Way around the center of the galaxy. Our galaxy is moving in relation to a special radiation. CMB radiation is a convenient reference point that allows you to determine the speed of various matters in the Universe. Studies have shown that our galaxy rotates at a speed of 600 kilometers per second.

Name appearance

The galaxy got its name because of its special appearance, reminiscent of spilled milk in the night sky. The name was given to her in Ancient Rome. Then it was called "the road of milk." Until now, it is called that - the Milky Way, associating the name with appearance white streak in the night sky, with spilled milk.

Mentions have been found about the galaxy since the era of Aristotle, who said that the Milky Way is a place where the celestial spheres are in contact with the earthly ones. Until the moment when the telescope was created, no one added anything to this opinion. And only since the seventeenth century people began to look at the world differently.

Our neighbours

For some reason, many people think that the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda. But this opinion is not entirely correct. The closest "neighbor" to us is the Canis Major galaxy, located inside the Milky Way. It is located at a distance of 25,000 light years from us, and 42,000 light years from the center. In fact, we are closer to Canis Major than to the black hole at the center of the galaxy.

Before the discovery of Canis Major at a distance of 70 thousand light years, Sagittarius was considered the closest neighbor, and after that - the Large Magellanic Cloud. Unusual stars with a huge density of class M were discovered in Pse.

According to the theory, the Milky Way swallowed Canis Major along with all of its stars, planets and other objects.

Collision of galaxies

Recently, there is more and more information that the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way, the Andromeda Nebula, will swallow our universe. These two giants formed at about the same time - about 13.6 billion years ago. It is believed that these giants are able to unite galaxies, and due to the expansion of the Universe, they must move away from each other. But, contrary to all the rules, these objects move towards each other. The speed of movement is 200 kilometers per second. It is estimated that in 2-3 billion years Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way.

Astronomer J. Dubinsky created the collision model shown in this video:

The collision will not lead to a global catastrophe. And after several billion years, a new system will form, with the usual galactic forms.

Dead galaxies

Scientists conducted a large-scale study of the starry sky, covering about an eighth of it. As a result of the analysis of the star systems of the Milky Way galaxy, it was possible to find out that there are previously unknown streams of stars on the outskirts of our universe. This is all that remains of small galaxies that were once destroyed by gravity.

A telescope installed in Chile took a huge number of images that allowed scientists to assess the sky. Surrounding our galaxy, according to the images, are halos of dark matter, rarefied gas and few stars, remnants of dwarf galaxies that were once swallowed up by the Milky Way. With enough data, scientists managed to collect the "skeleton" of the dead galaxies. It's like in paleontology - it's hard to tell from a few bones what the creature looked like, but with enough data, you can assemble the skeleton and guess what the lizard was. So it is here: the information content of the images made it possible to recreate eleven galaxies that were swallowed up by the Milky Way.

Scientists are confident that as they observe and evaluate the information they receive, they will be able to find several more new decayed galaxies that were “eaten” by the Milky Way.

We're under fire

According to scientists, the hypervelocity stars in our galaxy did not originate in it, but in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Theorists cannot explain many points regarding the existence of such stars. For example, it is impossible to say exactly why a large number of hypervelocity stars are concentrated in Sextant and Leo. Revising the theory, scientists came to the conclusion that such a speed can only develop due to the impact on them of a black hole located in the center of the Milky Way.

Recently, more and more stars are being discovered that do not move from the center of our galaxy. After analyzing the trajectory of ultrafast stars, scientists managed to find out that we are under attack from the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The death of the planet

By observing the planets in our galaxy, scientists were able to see how the planet died. She was consumed by an aging star. During the expansion and transformation into a red giant, the star swallowed up its planet. And another planet in the same system changed its orbit. Seeing this and assessing the state of our Sun, scientists came to the conclusion that the same thing will happen to our luminary. In about five million years, it will turn into a red giant.

How the galaxy works

Our Milky Way has several arms that rotate in a spiral. The center of the entire disk is a gigantic black hole.

We can see galactic arms in the night sky. They look like white stripes, reminiscent of a milky road that is strewn with stars. These are the branches of the Milky Way. They are best seen in clear weather during the warm season, when there is the most cosmic dust and gases.

Our galaxy has the following arms:

1. Angle branch.
2. Orion. Our solar system is located in this arm. This sleeve is our "room" in the "house".
3. Sleeve Keel-Sagittarius.
4. Branch of Perseus.
5. Branch of the Shield of the Southern Cross.

Also in the composition there is a core, a gas ring, dark matter. It supplies about 90% of the entire galaxy, and the remaining ten are visible objects.

Our solar system, the Earth and other planets are a single whole of a huge gravitational system that can be seen every night in a clear sky. A variety of processes are constantly taking place in our “house”: stars are born, decay, other galaxies are shelling us, dust and gases appear, stars change and go out, others flare up, they dance around ... And all this happens somewhere far away in a universe about which we know so little. Who knows, maybe the time will come when people will be able to reach other arms and planets of our galaxy in a matter of minutes, travel to other universes.

Planet Earth, the solar system, billions of other stars and celestial bodies - all this is our Milky Way galaxy - a huge intergalactic formation, where everything obeys the laws of gravity. Data on what the true size of the galaxy is only approximate. And the most interesting thing is that there are hundreds of such formations, large or smaller, in the Universe, maybe even thousands.

The Milky Way Galaxy and its surroundings

All celestial bodies, including the planets of the Milky Way, satellites, asteroids, comets and stars, are constantly in motion. Born in the cosmic vortex of the Big Bang, all these objects are on the way of their development. Some are older, while others are clearly younger.

The gravitational formation rotates around the center, while the individual parts of the galaxy rotate at different speeds. If in the center the speed of rotation of the galactic disk is rather moderate, then on the periphery this parameter reaches values ​​of 200-250 km/s. In one of these areas, closer to the center of the galactic disk, the Sun is located. The distance from it to the center of the galaxy is 25-28 thousand light years. A complete revolution around the central axis of the gravitational formation of the Sun and the solar system make for 225-250 million years. Accordingly, in the entire history of its existence, the solar system flew around the center only 30 times.

The place of the galaxy in the universe

One notable feature should be noted. The position of the Sun and, accordingly, the planet Earth is very convenient. In the galactic disk, the process of compaction is constantly going on. This mechanism is caused by a discrepancy between the speed of rotation of the spiral branches and the movement of stars that move within the galactic disk according to their own laws. During compaction, violent processes occur, accompanied by powerful ultraviolet radiation. The Sun and the Earth are comfortably located in a corotation circle where there is no such violent activity: between two spiral branches on the border of the arms of the Milky Way - Sagittarius and Perseus. This also explains the calm in which we have been for such a long time. For more than 4.5 billion years we have not been affected by cosmic cataclysms.

The structure of the Milky Way galaxy

The galactic disk is not uniform in its composition. Like other spiral gravity systems, the Milky Way has three distinct regions:

• the core, formed by a dense star cluster, numbering a billion stars of different ages;
• the galactic disk itself, formed from clusters of stars, stellar gas and dust;
• corona, spherical halo - an area in which globular clusters, dwarf galaxies, individual groups of stars, cosmic dust and gas are located.

Near the plane of the galactic disk are young stars collected in clusters. The density of star clusters in the center of the disk is higher. Near the center, the density is 10,000 stars per cubic parsec. In the area where the solar system is located, the density of stars is already 1-2 luminaries per 16 cubic parsecs. As a rule, the age of these celestial bodies is no more than a few billion years.

Interstellar gas is also concentrated around the plane of the disk, subject to centrifugal forces. Despite the constant speed of rotation of the spiral arms, the interstellar gas is unevenly distributed, forming large and small zones of clouds and nebulae. However, the main galactic building material is dark matter. Its mass prevails over the total mass of all celestial bodies that make up the Milky Way galaxy.

If the structure of the galaxy is quite clear and transparent on the diagram, then in reality it is almost impossible to consider the central regions of the galactic disk. Gas and dust clouds and accumulations of stellar gas hide from our gaze the light from the center of the Milky Way, in which a real space monster lives - a supermassive black hole. The mass of this supergiant is approximately 4.3 million M☉. Next to the supergiant is a smaller black hole. Complementing this gloomy company are hundreds of dwarf black holes. The black holes of the Milky Way are not only eaters of stellar matter, but also serve as a maternity hospital, throwing huge bunches of protons, neutrons and electrons into space. It is from them that atomic hydrogen is formed - the main fuel of the star tribe.

Jumper - the bar is located in the region of the nucleus of the galaxy. Its length is 27 thousand light years. Old stars reign here, red giants, whose stellar matter feeds black holes. In this region, the main part of molecular hydrogen is concentrated, which is the main building material of the star formation process.

Geometrically, the structure of the galaxy looks quite simple. Each spiral arm, and there are four of them in the Milky Way, originates from a gas ring. The sleeves diverge at an angle of 20⁰. At the outer boundaries of the galactic disk, the main element is atomic hydrogen, which spreads from the center of the galaxy to the periphery. The thickness of the hydrogen layer on the outskirts of the Milky Way is much wider than in the center, while its density is extremely low. The rarefaction of the hydrogen layer is facilitated by the impact of dwarf galaxies, which have been inseparably following our galaxy for tens of billions of years.

Theoretical models of our galaxy

Even ancient astronomers tried to prove that the visible band in the sky is part of a huge stellar disk rotating around its center. This statement was facilitated by the ongoing mathematical calculations. It was possible to get an idea about our galaxy only thousands of years later, when instrumental methods of space exploration came to the aid of science. A breakthrough in the study of the nature of the Milky Way was the work of the Englishman William Herschel. In 1700, he was able to experimentally prove that our galaxy has the shape of a disk.

Already in our time, research has taken a different turn. Scientists relied on comparing the movement of stars, between which there was a different distance. Using the parallax method, Jacob Kaptein was able to roughly determine the diameter of the galaxy, which, according to his calculations, is 60-70 thousand light years. Accordingly, the place of the Sun was determined. It turned out that it is located relatively far from the raging center of the galaxy and at a decent distance from the periphery of the Milky Way.

The fundamental theory of the existence of galaxies is the theory of the American astrophysicist Edwin Hubble. He owns the idea of ​​classifying all gravitational formations, dividing them into elliptical galaxies and spiral-type formations. The last, spiral galaxies represent the most extensive group, which includes formations of various sizes. The largest of the recently discovered spiral galaxies is NGC 6872, whose diameter exceeds 552 thousand light years.

Expected future and forecasts

The Milky Way Galaxy looks like a compact and ordered gravitational formation. Unlike our neighbors, our intergalactic home is quite calm. Black holes systematically affect the galactic disk, reducing it in size. This process has already been going on for tens of billions of years, and how long it will continue is unknown. The only threat that hangs over our galaxy comes from its nearest neighbor. The Andromeda Galaxy is rapidly approaching us. Scientists suggest that the collision of two gravitational systems may occur in 4.5 billion years.

Such a meeting-merger will mean the end of the world in which we used to live. The Milky Way, which is smaller, will be swallowed up by the larger formation. Instead of two large spiral formations, a new elliptical galaxy will appear in the Universe. Until that time, our galaxy will be able to deal with its satellites. Two dwarf galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - will be swallowed up by the Milky Way in 4 billion years.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

The Milky Way is our home galaxy, a family of 100 billion stars. Their light forms a pale path in the night sky; its various parts are visible anywhere on Earth. Our Galaxy has spiral arms, stars, gas and dust. It is possible that there is a giant black hole at its center. The disk of the Galaxy is surrounded by a vast cloud - a halo - of invisible matter.

What exactly is the Milky Way? There are 100 billion stars arranged in a thin disk with spiral arms. Since we live inside the Galaxy, its shape is difficult to imagine directly. When observing the Milky Way from the starboard, we are looking in a direction that lies in the plane of the disk.

How to see the Milky Way is hindered by eider clouds and whining. They are transparent to radio waves, and radio astronomers have established that the Galaxy is a large spiral, and the Sun is also located at a distance of 25,000 light years from the center. The diameter of the main part of the disk, consisting of stars, reaches 100,000 snow years, but its thickness is much less. In the part where the Sun is located, it does not exceed several hundred snow years.

In the center of the inner part of the disk there is a thickening, a sphere of stars about 3000 light-years thick. In this region, the stars are packed much more densely than in the disk. The spiral disk, along with its central thickening, is located inside a vast halo - a cloud of matter that extends 150,000 light-years from the center.

Inside the disk

The disk of the galaxy resembles thin pancake. It has four spiral branches - arms containing gas, dust and young stars. Our Sun is in the Orion Arm, which is the branch that includes the Orion Nebula and the North America Nebula. Between the Sun and the central thickening is the arm of Sagittarius - Carina, about 75,000 light-years long.

The galaxy is spinning. The inner parts pass through their orbits much faster than the outer ones. The same pattern is observed in the solar system, where Mercury goes around the Sun in 88 days, and Pluto in 243 years. The galactic journey of our Sun takes about 200 million years. The age of the Sun is about 25 galactic years, since it managed to go around the Galaxy 25 times.

Since the regions closer to the center of the Galaxy rotate their orbits faster, the question arises why the spiral arms did not wrap hundreds of times around each other in this cosmic whirlpool. The answer is: the spiral branches are "density waves," traffic jams on the cosmic highway, where congestion always forms in the same places, although every "car" (every star in the Milky Way) eventually passes on.

When stars and gas, in their orbital motion around the Galaxy, approach the spiral arm, they crash into the slowly moving material of the arm. New stars can be born in such interaction zones. As the gas and dust clump into a dense formation, the compressed clouds collapse under the force of gravity and create new stars. When observing other spiral galaxies, young stars and bright radiating nebulae can be seen in their spiral arms. In these arms are open clusters, entire families of the youngest stars.

Runaway Stars

Most stars in the vicinity of the Sun move in galactic orbits at speeds of 30 to 50 km per second, but there are some stars that travel more than twice as fast. The orbits of these fast stars cross the disk of the Galaxy through and through. Outside, in the galactic halo, the stars have very high speeds.

invisible galaxy

Knowing the orbital velocities of stars and gas, astronomers calculate the amount of matter inside the galaxy. The faster a star moves in an orbit with a given radius, the more massive its galaxy must be. In exactly the same way, the mass of the Sun is found, using the relationship between the orbital velocity of the planet, the radius of its orbit, and the mass of the Sun.

The speed of the Sun and its distance from the center of the Galaxy indicate that the mass of the Galaxy contained within the orbit of the Sun is about 100 billion solar masses. This roughly coincides with the mass of visible stars and gas.

However, the stars outside the solar orbit tell us something very different. Instead of slowing down as you move away from the center (as happens with the planets and the solar system), the speeds of stars remain more or less constant. This can only happen when the stars are attracted by the much stronger gravitational forces generated by the gigantic amount of invisible matter. Clusters in the galactic halo move as if they were attracted by 10 times more matter than what we see.

The Milky Way has a companion galaxy at the bottom, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The orbit of one of them indicates that the mass contained in the halo is 5 to 10 times the mass that we observe in the disk.

Invisible substance in the halo

Most of the matter in the galactic halo is invisible and therefore cannot be contained in ordinary stars. It is not a gas either, as it would be detected by radio telescopes or ultraviolet telescopes. Light from distant galaxies passes through the halo to us, so the extra mass cannot be dust. Dark matter hidden from us could consist of some mysterious atomic or nuclear particles, not yet discovered on Earth. On the other hand, countless cold "planets" or black holes can form the hidden mass. Anyway, now nine-tenths of the Milky Way galaxy is invisible. In the future, we will see that this problem of hidden mass extends to other galaxies, and even to the entire Universe.

Center

The center of the Milky Way galaxy lies in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The center cannot be seen in optical telescopes, as it is obscured by vast accumulations of nyls. However, they are permeable to radio waves and infrared radiation, which provide us with information about the center of the Galaxy.

Within 1000 light-years from the center, the stars are very densely packed. If you were on any planet inside this crowded zone, you would see a good million very bright stars in the night sky, so that darkness would never come. The nearest stars would be only a few light days away.

Something big is happening in the heart of the Milky Way. The central region is a powerful source of radio waves, infrared and X-rays. Powerful infrared radiation comes from a region only 20 light years across. The radio maps of this area show clouds of gas rushing towards the center. A ragged ring of gas swirls around the center; hot gas, escaping from its inner edge, falls to the center.

central monster

At the very heart of the Milky Way is a mysterious source of colossal energy. Shining like a hundred million suns, it is so small in size that it could fit entirely inside the orbit of Jupiter. Its mass is about a million times that of the Sun. Almost certainly there is a black hole there, greedily devouring interstellar gas and dust and drawing in fresh food from the ragged gas ring. Falling into a black hole, this gas heats up and releases energy, which we observe.

Not all astronomers agree with the hypothesis that energy is generated by a black hole. In their opinion, the release of such energy could be the result of a powerful explosion of stellar births.

Our Neighbors, Magellanic Clouds

Two galaxies that are satellites of the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, were discovered in the 16th century. Portuguese navigators while sailing to the shores of South Africa. Subsequently, they were named after Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), leader of the first world travel(1519-1522). Magellanic clouds are visible in the southern hemisphere. The Large Cloud is 165,000 light years from us, while the Small Cloud is 200,000 light years away.

The Large Cloud has a central band of stars, but no spiral structure. It is a medium-sized galaxy—it contains about 20 billion stars. It is 10 times closer to us than the nearest large galaxy. Since individual stars can be seen in the Large Cloud, astronomers often observe this galaxy, trying to study life path ordinary stars. In the Big Cloud is a giant radiant nebula - Tarantula. It is a gigantic cloud of supergiant stars and gas. There is a large "factory of stars" here. In 1987, it was in this region that the famous supernova explosion occurred.

Galactic cannibalism

Both Magellanic Clouds move in orbits around our Galaxy. Since they are so far away from us, their movement across the sky is almost imperceptible. However, in 1993, astronomers still managed to measure this movement by comparing photographs taken with an interval of 17 years. The stars of the Great Cloud moved just enough in that time to detect this movement. Knowing its speed, astronomers calculated the Big Cloud's orbit. In doing so, they ran into two big surprises.

First of all, the speed was greater than expected. This could only be explained by assuming that the Milky Way is even larger than previously thought. Apparently, the invisible massive halo is about 10 times larger than the spiral disk of the Galaxy. Traveling in orbit around the Milky Way takes the Great Cloud about 2.5 billion years.

Secondly, the orbit passes very close to the massive halo. As a result, every time the Big Cloud gets close enough, gravitational forces tear it to shreds. A giant tail of debris, consisting of star clusters and hydrogen, is sucked out. As a result, a long thin arc of matter separated from the Great Cloud, which is currently falling onto the Milky Way. The same fate is with the Small Cloud. Satellite galaxies, like giant galactic-scale comets, leave debris tails behind them. According to astronomers, in the next 10 billion years, the Milky Way will commit an act of galactic cannibalism, completely absorbing all the matter of the Magellanic Clouds.

Path to the Universe

All the stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud are more or less the same distance from us. It's about the same as saying, "All New Yorkers are the same distance from London." This means that the differences in the magnitudes of individual stars in the Magellanic Cloud are entirely due to the difference in their age and chemical composition. When observing the stars of our own Galaxy, we must take into account that the distances to them are completely different, and precise definition these distances is a difficult task. Comparing the stars of the Magellanic Clouds with each other, one can be sure that the difference in distances has almost no effect on the result.

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The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth, the solar system, and all the individual stars visible to the naked eye. Refers to barred spiral galaxies.

The Milky Way, together with the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the Triangulum Galaxy (M33) and more than 40 dwarf satellite galaxies - its own and Andromeda - form the Local Group of galaxies, which is part of the Local Supercluster (Virgo Supercluster).

Discovery history

Discovery of Galileo

The Milky Way revealed its secret only in 1610. It was then that the first telescope was invented, which was used by Galileo Galilei. The famous scientist saw through the device that the Milky Way is a real cluster of stars, which, when viewed with the naked eye, merged into a continuous faintly twinkling band. Galileo even succeeded in explaining the heterogeneity of the structure of this band. It was caused by the presence in the celestial phenomenon of not only star clusters. There are also dark clouds. The combination of these two elements creates an amazing image of the night phenomenon.

Discovery of William Herschel

The study of the Milky Way continued into the 18th century. During this period, his most active researcher was William Herschel. Famous composer and the musician was engaged in the manufacture of telescopes and studied the science of the stars. The most important discovery of Herschel was the Great Plan of the Universe. This scientist observed the planets through a telescope and counted them in different parts of the sky. Studies have led to the conclusion that the Milky Way is a kind of stellar island, in which our Sun is also located. Herschel even drew a schematic plan of his discovery. In the figure, the star system was depicted as a millstone and had an elongated irregular shape. The sun at the same time was inside this ring that surrounded our world. This is how all scientists represented our Galaxy until the beginning of the last century.

It was not until the 1920s that the work of Jacobus Kaptein saw the light of day, in which the Milky Way was described in the most detailed way. At the same time, the author gave a scheme of the star island, which is as similar as possible to the one that is known to us at the present time. Today we know that the Milky Way is a Galaxy, which includes the solar system, the Earth and those individual stars that are visible to humans with the naked eye.

What shape is the Milky Way?

When studying galaxies, Edwin Hubble classified them into different kinds elliptical and spiral. Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped with spiral arms inside. Since the Milky Way is disk-shaped along with spiral galaxies, it is logical to assume that it is probably a spiral galaxy.

In the 1930s, R. J. Trumpler realized that the estimates of the size of the Milky Way galaxy made by Kapetin and others were erroneous, because the measurements were based on observations using radiation waves in the visible region of the spectrum. Trumpler came to the conclusion that a huge amount of dust in the plane of the Milky Way absorbs visible light. Therefore, distant stars and their clusters seem more ghostly than they really are. Because of this, in order to accurately image the stars and star clusters within the Milky Way, astronomers had to find a way to see through the dust.

In the 1950s, the first radio telescopes were invented. Astronomers have discovered that hydrogen atoms emit radiation in radio waves, and that such radio waves can penetrate dust in the Milky Way. Thus, it became possible to see the spiral arms of this galaxy. To do this, we used the marking of stars by analogy with marks when measuring distances. Astronomers realized that O and B stars could serve to achieve this goal.

Such stars have several features:

• brightness– they are highly visible and often found in small groups or associations;
• warm– they emit waves of different lengths (visible, infrared, radio waves);
• short life time They live for about 100 million years. Given the speed at which stars rotate at the center of the galaxy, they do not move far from their birthplace.

Astronomers can use radio telescopes to accurately match the positions of O and B stars and, based on the Doppler shifts in the radio spectrum, determine their speed. After performing such operations on many stars, scientists were able to produce combined radio and optical maps of the Milky Way's spiral arms. Each arm is named after the constellation that exists in it.

Astronomers believe that the movement of matter around the center of the galaxy creates density waves (regions of high and low density), just like you see when you mix cake dough with an electric mixer. These density waves are thought to have caused the spiral character of the galaxy.

Thus, considering the sky in waves of different wavelengths (radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-ray) using various ground-based and space telescopes, one can obtain various images Milky Way.

Doppler effect. Just as the high pitched sound of a fire truck siren gets lower as the vehicle moves away, the movement of the stars affects the wavelengths of light that reach Earth from them. This phenomenon is called the Doppler effect. We can measure this effect by measuring the lines in the star's spectrum and comparing them to the spectrum of a standard lamp. The degree of Doppler shift indicates how fast the star is moving relative to us. In addition, the direction of the Doppler shift can show us the direction in which the star is moving. If the star's spectrum shifts to the blue end, then the star is moving towards us; if in the red direction, it moves away.

Structure of the Milky Way

If we carefully consider the structure of the Milky Way, we will see the following:

1. galactic disk. Most of the stars in the Milky Way are concentrated here.

The disk itself is divided into the following parts:

• The nucleus is the center of the disk;
• Arcs - areas around the nucleus, including directly the areas above and below the plane of the disk.
• Spiral arms are areas that protrude outward from the center. Our solar system is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

1. globular clusters. Several hundred of them are scattered above and below the plane of the disk.
2. Halo. This is a large, dim region that surrounds the entire galaxy. The halo consists of high temperature gas and possibly dark matter.

halo radius significantly more sizes disk and, according to some sources, reaches several hundred thousand light-years. The center of symmetry of the Milky Way halo coincides with the center of the galactic disk. The halo consists mainly of very old, dim stars. The age of the spherical component of the Galaxy exceeds 12 billion years. The central, densest part of the halo within a few thousand light-years of the center of the Galaxy is called bulge(translated from English "thickening"). The halo as a whole rotates very slowly.

Compared to halo disk spins much faster. It looks like two plates folded at the edges. The diameter of the disk of the Galaxy is about 30 kpc (100,000 light years). The thickness is about 1000 light years. The rotation speed is not the same at different distances from the center. It rapidly increases from zero in the center to 200-240 km/s at a distance of 2 thousand light years from it. The mass of the disk is 150 billion times the mass of the Sun (1.99*1030 kg). Young stars and star clusters are concentrated in the disk. There are many bright and hot stars among them. The gas in the disk of the Galaxy is unevenly distributed, forming giant clouds. Hydrogen is the main chemical element in our galaxy. About 1/4 of it consists of helium.

One of the most areas of interest The galaxy is considered to be its center, or nucleus located in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The visible radiation of the central regions of the Galaxy is completely hidden from us by powerful layers of absorbing matter. Therefore, it began to be studied only after the creation of receivers for infrared and radio radiation, which is absorbed to a lesser extent. The central regions of the Galaxy are characterized by a strong concentration of stars: there are many thousands of them in each cubic parsec. Closer to the center, regions of ionized hydrogen and numerous sources of infrared radiation are noted, indicating star formation taking place there. At the very center of the Galaxy, the existence of a massive compact object is assumed - a black hole with a mass of about a million solar masses.

One of the most notable formations is spiral branches (or sleeves). They gave the name to this type of objects - spiral galaxies. Along the arms, the youngest stars are mainly concentrated, many open star clusters, as well as chains of dense clouds of interstellar gas in which stars continue to form. In contrast to the halo, where any manifestations of stellar activity are extremely rare, a stormy life continues in the branches, associated with the continuous transition of matter from interstellar space to stars and back. The spiral arms of the Milky Way are largely hidden from us by absorbing matter. Their detailed study began after the advent of radio telescopes. They made it possible to study the structure of the Galaxy by observing the radio emission of interstellar hydrogen atoms, which are concentrated along long spirals. According to modern concepts, spiral arms are associated with compression waves propagating across the disk of the galaxy. Passing through the compression regions, the matter of the disk becomes denser, and the formation of stars from the gas becomes more intense. The reasons for the appearance of such a peculiar wave structure in the disks of spiral galaxies are not entirely clear. Many astrophysicists are working on this problem.

The place of the sun in the galaxy

In the vicinity of the Sun, it is possible to trace sections of two spiral branches that are about 3 thousand light years away from us. According to the constellations where these areas are found, they are called the Sagittarius arm and the Perseus arm. The sun is almost in the middle between these spiral arms. True, relatively close (by galactic standards) from us, in the constellation of Orion, there is another, not so pronounced branch, which is considered an offshoot of one of the main spiral arms of the Galaxy.

The distance from the Sun to the center of the Galaxy is 23-28 thousand light years, or 7-9 thousand parsecs. This suggests that the Sun is located closer to the edge of the disk than to its center.

Together with all nearby stars, the Sun revolves around the center of the Galaxy at a speed of 220–240 km/s, making one revolution in about 200 million years. This means that for the entire time of its existence, the Earth flew around the center of the Galaxy no more than 30 times.

The speed of rotation of the Sun around the center of the Galaxy practically coincides with the speed with which the compression wave, which forms the spiral arm, moves in the given region. Such a situation is generally unusual for the Galaxy: the spiral arms rotate at a constant angular velocity, like the spokes of a wheel, while the movement of stars, as we have seen, obeys a completely different pattern. Therefore, almost the entire stellar population of the disk either gets inside the spiral branch or leaves it. The only place where the speeds of stars and spiral arms coincide is the so-called corotation circle, and it is on it that the Sun is located!

For the Earth, this circumstance is extremely favorable. After all, violent processes occur in the spiral branches, generating powerful radiation, destructive for all living things. And no atmosphere could protect him from it. But our planet exists in a relatively quiet place in the Galaxy and has not experienced the influence of these cosmic cataclysms for hundreds of millions and billions of years. Perhaps that is why life could originate and survive on Earth.

For a long time, the position of the Sun among the stars was considered the most ordinary. Today we know that this is not so: in a certain sense it is privileged. And this must be taken into account when discussing the possibility of the existence of life in other parts of our Galaxy.

The location of the stars

On a cloudless night sky, the Milky Way is visible from anywhere on our planet. However, only a part of the Galaxy, which is a system of stars located inside the Orion arm, is accessible to the human eye. What is the Milky Way? The definition in space of all its parts becomes most understandable if we consider the star map. In this case, it becomes clear that the Sun, illuminating the Earth, is located almost on the disk. This is almost the edge of the Galaxy, where the distance from the nucleus is 26-28 thousand light years. Moving at a speed of 240 kilometers per hour, the Luminary spends 200 million years on one revolution around the core, so that for the entire time of its existence it traveled across the disk, rounding the core, only thirty times. Our planet is in the so-called corotation circle. This is a place in which the speed of rotation of the arms and stars are identical. This circle is characterized by an increased level of radiation. That is why life, as scientists believe, could only arise on that planet, near which there is a small number of stars. Our Earth is such a planet. It is located on the periphery of the Galaxy, in its most peaceful place. That is why on our planet for several billion years there were no global cataclysms that often occur in the Universe.

What will the death of the Milky Way look like?

The cosmic story of the death of our galaxy begins here and now. We can blindly look around, thinking that the Milky Way, Andromeda (our older sister) and a bunch of unknowns - our cosmic neighbors - this is our home, but in reality there is much more. It's time to explore what else is around us. Go.

• Triangulum Galaxy. With a mass of about 5% of that of the Milky Way, it is the third largest galaxy in the Local Group. It has a spiral structure, its own satellites and may be a satellite of the Andromeda galaxy.
• Large Magellanic Cloud. This galaxy is only 1% of the mass of the Milky Way, but is the fourth largest in our local group. It is very close to our Milky Way—less than 200,000 light-years away—and is undergoing active star formation as tidal interactions with our galaxy cause gas to collapse and create new, hot, and large stars in the universe.
• Small Magellanic Cloud, NGC 3190 and NGC 6822. All of them have masses from 0.1% to 0.6% of the Milky Way (and it is not clear which one is larger) and all three are independent galaxies. Each contains over a billion solar masses of material.
• Elliptical galaxies M32 and M110. They may be "only" satellites of Andromeda, but each of them has more than a billion stars, and they can even exceed the masses of numbers 5, 6 and 7.

In addition, there are at least 45 other known galaxies - smaller ones - that make up our local group. Each of them has a halo of dark matter surrounding it; each of them is gravitationally attached to the other, located at a distance of 3 million light years. Despite their size, mass and size, none of them will remain in a few billion years.

So the main thing

As time passes, galaxies interact gravitationally. They not only pull together due to gravitational attraction, but also interact tidally. We usually talk about tides in the context of the Moon pulling on Earth's oceans and creating tides, and this is partly true. But from the point of view of the galaxy, the tides are a less noticeable process. The part of the small galaxy that is close to the big one will be attracted with more gravitational force, and the part that is further away will experience less attraction. As a result, the small galaxy will stretch out and eventually break apart under the influence of gravity.

Small galaxies that are part of our local group, including both Magellanic Clouds and dwarf elliptical galaxies, will be torn apart in this way, and their material will be incorporated into the large galaxies with which they merge. “So what,” you say. After all, this is not quite death, because large galaxies will remain alive. But even they will not exist forever in this state. In 4 billion years, the mutual gravitational pull of the Milky Way and Andromeda will drag the galaxies into a gravitational dance that will lead to a big merger. Although this process will take billions of years, the spiral structure of both galaxies will be destroyed, resulting in the creation of a single, giant elliptical galaxy at the core of our local group: the Milkweeds.

A small percentage of the stars will be ejected during such a merger, but the majority will remain unharmed, and there will be a large burst of star formation. Eventually, the rest of the galaxies in our local group will also be sucked in, leaving one big giant galaxy to gobble up the rest. This process will take place in all connected groups and clusters of galaxies throughout the Universe, while dark energy will push individual groups and clusters apart from each other. But even this cannot be called death, because the galaxy will remain. And for a while it will be. But the galaxy is made up of stars, dust and gas, and everything will eventually come to an end.

Across the Universe, galactic mergers will take place over tens of billions of years. During the same time, dark energy will pull them all over the Universe to a state of complete solitude and inaccessibility. And although the last galaxies outside our local group will not disappear until hundreds of billions of years have passed, the stars in them will live. The longest-lived stars in existence today will continue to burn their fuel for tens of trillions of years, and new stars will emerge from the gas, dust, and stellar corpses that populate each galaxy—albeit with fewer and fewer.

When the last stars burn out, only their corpses will remain - white dwarfs and neutron stars. They will shine for hundreds of trillions or even quadrillions of years before they go out. When that inevitability happens, we're left with brown dwarfs (failed stars) that accidentally fuse, re-ignite nuclear fusion, and create starlight for tens of trillions of years.

When the last star goes out tens of quadrillion years in the future, there will still be some mass left in the galaxy. So this can not be called "true death."

All masses gravitationally interact with each other, and gravitational objects of different masses exhibit strange properties when interacting:

• Repeated "approaches" and close passes cause exchanges of speed and momentum between them.
• Objects with low mass are ejected from the galaxy, and objects with higher mass sink into the center, losing speed.
• Over a sufficiently long period of time, most of the mass will be ejected, and only a small part of the remaining mass will be firmly attached.

At the very center of these galactic remnants will be a supermassive black hole, in every galaxy, and the rest of the galactic objects will orbit a larger version of our own solar system. Of course, this structure will be the last, and since the black hole will be as large as possible, it will eat everything it can reach. At the center of Mlecomeda there will be an object hundreds of millions of times more massive than our Sun.

But will it end too?

Thanks to the phenomenon of Hawking radiation, even these objects will one day decay. It will take about 10 80 to 10 100 years, depending on how massive our supermassive black hole becomes as it grows, but the end is coming. After that, the remains, rotating around the galactic center, will untie and leave only a halo of dark matter, which can also randomly dissociate, depending on the properties of this very matter. Without any matter, there will be nothing that we once called local group, the Milky Way and other dear names.

Mythology

Armenian, Arabic, Wallachian, Jewish, Persian, Turkish, Kyrgyz

According to one of the Armenian myths about the Milky Way, the god Vahagn, the ancestor of the Armenians, stole straw from the ancestor of the Assyrians, Barsham, in a harsh winter and disappeared into the sky. When he walked with his prey across the sky, he dropped straws on his way; from them a light trail was formed in the sky (in Armenian “Straw thief’s road”). The myth about scattered straw is also spoken of by Arabic, Jewish, Persian, Turkish and Kyrgyz names (Kirg. samanchynyn jolu- the path of the strawman) of this phenomenon. The inhabitants of Wallachia believed that Venus stole this straw from St. Peter.

Buryat

According to Buryat mythology, good forces create the world, modify the universe. Thus, the Milky Way arose from the milk that Manzan Gurme drew from her breast and splashed out after Abai Geser, who had deceived her. According to another version, the Milky Way is a "seam of the sky" sewn up after the stars fell out of it; on it, like on a bridge, tengri walk.

Hungarian

According to Hungarian legend, Attila will descend the Milky Way if the Székelys are in danger; the stars represent sparks from the hooves. Milky Way. accordingly, it is called the "road of warriors."

ancient greek

Etymology of the word Galaxias (Γαλαξίας) and its association with milk (γάλα) reveal two similar ancient greek myth. One of the legends tells about the mother's milk spilled across the sky of the goddess Hera, who was breastfeeding Hercules. When Hera learned that the baby she was breastfeeding was not her own child, but the illegitimate son of Zeus and an earthly woman, she pushed him away, and the spilled milk became the Milky Way. Another legend says that the spilled milk is the milk of Rhea, the wife of Kronos, and Zeus himself was the baby. Kronos devoured his children, as it was predicted to him that he would be overthrown by his own son. Rhea has a plan to save her sixth child, the newborn Zeus. She wrapped a stone in baby clothes and slipped it to Kronos. Kronos asked her to feed her son one more time before he swallowed him. The milk spilled from Rhea's chest on a bare rock was subsequently called the Milky Way.

Indian

The ancient Indians considered the Milky Way to be the milk of an evening red cow passing through the sky. In the Rig Veda, the Milky Way is called Aryaman's Throne Road. The Bhagavata Purana contains a version according to which the Milky Way is the belly of a celestial dolphin.

Inca

The main objects of observation in Inca astronomy (which was reflected in their mythology) in the sky were the dark sections of the Milky Way - a kind of "constellation" in the terminology of Andean cultures: Lama, Lama Cub, Shepherd, Condor, Partridge, Toad, Snake, Fox; as well as the stars: the Southern Cross, the Pleiades, Lyra and many others.

Ketskaya

In the Ket myths, similarly to the Selkup ones, the Milky Way is described as the road of one of the three mythological characters: the Son of Heaven (Esya), who went to hunt on the western side of the sky and froze there, the hero Albe, who pursued the evil goddess, or the first shaman Dokh, who climbed this road to the sun.

Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese

In the mythologies of the Sinosphere, the Milky Way is called and compared with a river (in Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese, the name “silver river” is retained. The Chinese also sometimes called the Milky Way “Yellow Road”, according to the color of straw.

Indigenous peoples of North America

The Hidatsa and the Eskimos call the Milky Way "Ash". Their myths speak of a girl who scattered ashes across the sky so that people could find their way home at night. The Cheyenne believed that the Milky Way was dirt and silt raised by the belly of a turtle floating in the sky. Eskimos from the Bering Strait - that these are the traces of the Creator Raven walking across the sky. The Cherokee believed that the Milky Way was formed when one hunter stole another's wife out of jealousy, and her dog began to eat. cornmeal, left unattended, and scattered it across the sky (the same myth is found among the Khoisan population of the Kalahari). Another myth of the same people says that the Milky Way is the trail of a dog dragging something across the sky. The Ctunah called the Milky Way "the dog's tail", the Blackfoot called it the "wolf road". Wyandot myth says that the Milky Way is a place where the souls of dead people and dogs come together and dance.

Maori

In Maori mythology, the Milky Way is considered to be the Tama-rereti boat. The nose of the boat is the constellation Orion and Scorpio, the anchor is the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri and Hadar are the rope. According to legend, one day Tama-rereti was sailing in his canoe and saw that it was already late, and he was far from home. There were no stars in the sky, and, fearing that Tanif might attack, Tama-rereti began to throw sparkling pebbles into the sky. The heavenly deity Ranginui liked what he was doing, and he placed the Tama-rereti boat in the sky, and turned the pebbles into stars.

Finnish, Lithuanian, Estonian, Erzya, Kazakh

The Finnish name is Fin. Linnunrata- means "The Way of the Birds"; the Lithuanian name has a similar etymology. Estonian myth also connects the Milky ("bird's") Way with bird flight.

The Erzya name is "Kargon Ki" ("Crane Road").

The Kazakh name is “Kus Zholy” (“Way of the Birds”).

Interesting facts about the Milky Way galaxy

• The Milky Way began forming as a cluster of dense regions after the Big Bang. The first stars to appear were in globular clusters that continue to exist. These are the oldest stars in the galaxy;
• The galaxy has increased its parameters by absorbing and merging with others. Now she is picking stars from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds;
• The Milky Way moves in space with an acceleration of 550 km / s with respect to the background radiation;
• Lurking at the galactic center is the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. By mass, it is 4.3 million times greater than the solar one;
• Gas, dust and stars revolve around the center at a speed of 220 km/s. This is a stable indicator, implying the presence of a shell of dark matter;
• In 5 billion years, a collision with the Andromeda galaxy is expected.