What is the name and what our Galaxy looks like - The name of the stars of our Galaxy. Some interesting facts about our Galaxy - Milky Way The name of our galaxy

Science

Each person has his own idea of ​​what home is. For some it's a roof over their head, for others a home is... planet earth, a rocky ball that plows through outer space along its closed path around the Sun.

No matter how big our planet may seem to us, it is just a grain of sand in giant star system, the size of which is difficult to imagine. This star system is the Milky Way galaxy, which can also rightfully be called our home.

Galaxy Sleeves

Milky Way- a spiral galaxy with a bar that runs through the center of the spiral. About two-thirds of all known galaxies are spiral, and two-thirds of them are barred. That is, the Milky Way is included in the list most common galaxies.

Spiral galaxies have arms that extend out from the center, like wheel spokes that twist in a spiral. Our solar system is located in the central part of one of the arms, which is called Orion's sleeve.

The Orion Arm was once thought to be a small "offshoot" of larger arms such as Perseus arm or Shield-Centauri arm. Not long ago, it was suggested that the Orion arm is indeed branch of the Perseus arm and does not leave the center of the galaxy.

The problem is that we cannot see our galaxy from the outside. We can only observe those things that are around us, and judge what shape the galaxy has, being, as it were, inside it. However, scientists were able to calculate that this sleeve has a length of approximately 11 thousand light years and thickness 3500 light years.

Supermassive black hole

The smallest supermassive black holes that scientists have discovered are approximately V 200 thousand times heavier than the sun. For comparison: ordinary black holes have the mass of just 10 times exceeding the mass of the Sun. At the center of the Milky Way there is an incredibly massive black hole, the mass of which is difficult to imagine.

For the past 10 years, astronomers have been monitoring the activity of stars in orbit around the star. Sagittarius A, a dense region at the center of the spiral of our galaxy. Based on the movement of these stars, it was determined that in the center Sagittarius A*, which is hidden behind a dense cloud of dust and gas, there is a supermassive black hole whose mass 4.1 million times more than the mass of the Sun!

The animation below shows the actual motion of stars around a black hole. from 1997 to 2011 in the region of one cubic parsec in the center of our galaxy. When stars approach a black hole, they loop around it at incredible speeds. For example, one of these stars, S 0-2 moves at speed 18 million kilometers per hour: black hole first attracts her, and then sharply pushes her away.

Just recently, scientists observed how a cloud of gas approached a black hole and was torn to pieces by its massive gravitational field. Parts of this cloud were swallowed up by the hole, and the remaining parts began to resemble long thin noodles longer than 160 billion kilometers.

Magneticparticles

In addition to the presence of a supermassive all-consuming black hole, the center of our galaxy boasts incredible activity: old stars die, and new ones are born with enviable consistency.

Not long ago, scientists noticed something else at the galactic center - a stream of high-energy particles that extend a distance 15 thousand parsecs across the galaxy. This distance is approximately half the diameter of the Milky Way.

The particles are invisible to the naked eye, but magnetic imaging shows that the particle geysers occupy approx. two thirds of the visible sky:

What is behind this phenomenon? For one million years, stars appeared and disappeared, feeding never stopping flow, directed towards the outer arms of the galaxy. The total energy of the geyser is a million times greater than the energy of a supernova.

Particles move at incredible speeds. Based on the structure of the particle flow, astronomers built magnetic field model, which dominates our galaxy.

Newstars

How often do new stars form in our galaxy? Researchers have been asking this question for many years. It was possible to map the areas of our galaxy where there is aluminum-26, an isotope of aluminum that appears where stars are born or die. Thus, it was possible to find out that every year in the Milky Way galaxy 7 new stars and approximately twice in a hundred years a large star explodes in a supernova.

The Milky Way Galaxy does not produce the largest number of stars. When a star dies, it releases such raw materials into space as like hydrogen and helium. Over hundreds of thousands of years, these particles coalesce into molecular clouds that eventually become so dense that their center collapses under their own gravity, thus forming a new star.

It looks like a kind of eco-system: death feeds new life. Particles from a particular star will be part of a billion new stars in the future. This is how things are in our galaxy, which is why it is evolving. This leads to the formation of new conditions under which the likelihood of the emergence of Earth-like planets increases.

Planets of the Milky Way galaxy

Despite the constant death and birth of new stars in our galaxy, their number has been calculated: the Milky Way is home to approximately 100 billion stars. Based on new research, scientists suggest that every star is orbited by at least one planet or more. That is, in our corner of the Universe there is only from 100 to 200 billion planets.

The scientists who came to this conclusion studied stars like red dwarfs of spectral type M. These stars are smaller than our Sun. They make up 75 percent of all the stars in the Milky Way. In particular, researchers paid attention to the star Kepler-32, which sheltered five planets.

How do astronomers discover new planets?

Planets, unlike stars, are difficult to detect because they do not emit their own light. We can say with certainty that there is a planet around a star only when it stands in front of his star and blocks out its light.

The planets of Kepler -32 behave exactly like exoplanets orbiting other M dwarf stars. They are located approximately at the same distance and have similar sizes. That is, the Kepler -32 system is typical system for our galaxy.

If there are more than 100 billion planets in our galaxy, how many of them are Earth-like planets? It turns out, not so much. There are dozens of different types of planets: gas giants, pulsar planets, brown dwarfs, and planets where molten metal rains from the sky. Those planets that consist of rocks can be located too far or too close to the star, so they are unlikely to resemble Earth.

The results of recent studies have shown that in our galaxy there are more terrestrial planets than previously thought, namely: from 11 to 40 billion. Scientists took as an example 42 thousand stars, similar to our Sun, and began to look for exoplanets that can orbit them in a zone where it is not too hot and not too cold. It was discovered 603 exoplanets, among which 10 matched the search criteria.

By analyzing data about stars, scientists have proven the existence of billions of Earth-like planets that they have yet to officially discover. Theoretically, these planets are capable of maintaining temperatures for existence of liquid water on them, which, in turn, will allow life to arise.

Collision of galaxies

Even if new stars are constantly being formed in the Milky Way galaxy, it will not be able to increase in size, unless it gets new material from somewhere else. And the Milky Way is really expanding.

Previously, we were not sure exactly how the galaxy manages to grow, but recent discoveries have suggested that the Milky Way is galaxy-cannibal, meaning it has consumed other galaxies in the past and will likely do so again, at least until some larger galaxy swallows it.

Using a space telescope "Hubble" and information obtained from photographs taken over seven years, scientists have discovered stars at the outer edge of the Milky Way that move in a special way. Instead of moving toward or away from the center of the galaxy like other stars, they appear to drift toward the edge. It is believed that this star cluster is all that remains of another galaxy that was absorbed by the Milky Way galaxy.

This collision apparently occurred several billion years ago and, most likely, it will not be the last. Considering the speed at which we are moving, our galaxy through 4.5 billion years will collide with the Andromeda galaxy.

Influence of satellite galaxies

Although the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, it is not exactly a perfect spiral. At its center there is peculiar bulge, which appeared as a result of hydrogen gas molecules escaping from the flat disk of the spiral.

For years, astronomers have puzzled over why the galaxy has such a bulge. It is logical to assume that the gas is drawn into the disk itself, and does not escape out. The longer they studied this question, the more confused they became: the molecules of the bulge are not only pushed outward, but also vibrate at their own frequency.

What could cause this effect? Today, scientists believe that dark matter and satellite galaxies are to blame - Magellanic Clouds. These two galaxies are very small: taken together they make up only 2 percent of the total mass of the Milky Way. This is not enough to have an impact on him.

However, when dark matter moves through the clouds, it creates waves that apparently influence the gravitational attraction, strengthening it, and hydrogen under the influence of this attraction escapes from the center of the galaxy.

Magellanic Clouds orbit the Milky Way. The spiral arms of the Milky Way, under the influence of these galaxies, seem to sway in the place where they pass.

Twin galaxies

Although the Milky Way galaxy can be called unique in many respects, it is not very rare. Spiral galaxies predominate in the Universe. Considering that only in our field of vision are about 170 billion galaxies, we can assume that somewhere there are galaxies very similar to ours.

What if there is a galaxy somewhere - an exact copy of the Milky Way? In 2012, astronomers discovered such a galaxy. It even has two small moons that orbit it that exactly match our Magellanic Clouds. By the way, only 3 percent spiral galaxies have similar companions, whose lifespan is relatively short. The Magellanic Clouds are likely to dissolve in a couple of billion years.

To discover such a similar galaxy, with satellites, a supermassive black hole in the center and the same size, is incredible luck. This galaxy was named NGC 1073 and it's so similar to the Milky Way that astronomers are studying it to find out more about our own galaxy. For example, we can see it from the side and thus better imagine what the Milky Way looks like.

Galactic year

On Earth, a year is the time during which the Earth manages to make full revolution around the Sun. Every 365 days we return to the same point. Our solar system revolves in the same way around a black hole located at the center of the galaxy. However, it makes a full revolution in 250 million years. That is, since the dinosaurs disappeared, we have only made a quarter of a full revolution.

Descriptions of the solar system rarely mention that it moves through space, like everything else in our world. Relative to the center of the Milky Way, the solar system moves at a speed 792 thousand kilometers per hour. To put it into perspective, if you were moving at the same speed, you could travel around the world in 3 minutes.

The period of time during which the Sun manages to make a complete revolution around the center of the Milky Way is called galactic year. It is estimated that the Sun has lived only 18 galactic years.

We are accustomed to the fact that the Milky Way is a cluster of stars in the sky along which our ancestors navigated. But in fact, this is more than ordinary night luminaries - this is a huge and unknown world.

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Structure of the Milky Way galaxy

Sometimes it seems incredible how dynamically space science is developing. It’s hard to imagine, but 4 centuries ago even the statement that the Earth revolves around the Sun caused condemnation and rejection in society. Judgments about these and other cosmic phenomena could lead not only to imprisonment, but also to death. Fortunately, times have changed, and the study of the Universe has long become a priority in science. Particularly important in this regard are studies of the Milky Way, a galaxy of thousands of stars, one of which is our Sun.

Studying the structure of the galaxy and its development helps answer the main questions that have interested humanity since the beginning of time. These are such sacramental riddles about how the solar system arose, what factors contributed to the emergence of life on Earth, and whether life exists on other planets.

The fact that the Milky Way galaxy is a huge arm of an infinite star system became known relatively recently - a little more than half a century ago. The structure of our galaxy is similar to a colossal spiral, in which our solar system is located somewhere on the periphery. From the side, it looks like a giant magnifying glass with a bilaterally convex center with a crown.

What is the Milky Way galaxy? These are billions of stars and planets that are connected to each other by some algorithm for the structure of the Universe. In addition to stars, the Milky Way contains interstellar gas, galactic dust and star globular clusters.

The disk of our galaxy constantly rotates around the central part, which is located in the constellation Sagittarius. It takes 220 million years for the Milky Way to make one full revolution around its axis (and this despite the fact that rotation occurs at a speed of 250 kilometers per second). Thus, all the stars of our galaxy move in a single impulse for many years, and our Solar system along with them. What makes them rotate around the core at truly breakneck speed? Scientists suggest both the colossal weight of the center and the almost incomprehensible amount of energy (it may exceed the size of 150 million suns).

Why don’t we see any spirals or a giant core, why don’t we feel this universal rotation? The fact is that we are in the sleeve of this spiral Universe, and the frantic rhythm of its life is perceived by us in an everyday way.

Of course, there will be skeptics who will deny this structure of our galaxy, citing the fact that there is no accurate photograph of the galactic disk (and there cannot be one). The fact is that the Universe is by no means limited to the Milky Way galaxy and there are a bunch of similar formations in space. They are very similar to our galaxy in structure - these are the same disks with a center around which stars revolve. That is, outside our Milky Way there are billions of systems similar to the Solar one.

The closest galaxy to us is the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. They can be seen almost with the naked eye in the Southern Hemisphere. These two small luminous points, similar to clouds, were first described by the great traveler, from whose name the names of space objects originate. The diameter of the Magellanic Clouds is relatively small - less than half the Milky Way. And there are much fewer star systems in the Clouds.

Or the Andromeda Nebula. This is another spiral-shaped galaxy that is very similar in appearance and composition to the Milky Way. Its size is amazing - according to the most conservative estimates, it is three times larger than our Path. And the number of such gigantic galaxies in the Universe has long exceeded a billion - this is only what we can see at this stage in the development of astronomy. It is quite possible that in a few years we will become aware of another, previously unnoticed galaxy.

Characteristics of the Milky Way

As mentioned earlier, the Milky Way is a collection of millions of stars with their own systems, similar to the solar one. How many planets there are in our galaxy is a real mystery, which more than one generation of astronomers has been struggling to solve. Although, to be honest, they are more concerned about another question - what is the likelihood that within our galaxy there is a star system whose characteristics are similar to ours? Scientists are especially interested in stars that have a rotation speed and technical characteristics similar to the Sun, and also occupy our place on the galactic scale. This is because on planets similar in age and conditions to our Earth, there is a high probability of intelligent life.

Unfortunately, scientists’ attempts to find at least something similar to the solar system in the galaxy’s arms have not been successful. And this is probably for the best. It is still unknown who or what may await us in an unfamiliar constellation.

Is the Black Hole a planet killer or a galaxy creator?

At the end of its life, the star sheds its gas shell, and its core begins to shrink very quickly. Provided that the mass of the star is large enough (1.4 times more than the Sun), a Black Hole will form in its place. This is an object with a critical speed that no object can overcome. As a result, what falls into the Black Hole disappears into it forever. That is, in essence, this cosmic element is a one-way ticket. Any object that comes close enough to the Hole will disappear forever.

It's sad, isn't it? But there is also a positive aspect to the Black Hole - thanks to it, various cosmic objects are gradually pulled in and new galaxies are formed. It turns out that the core of each of the known star systems is a Black Hole.

Why is our galaxy called the Milky Way?

Each nation has its own legends about how the visible part of the Milky Way was formed. For example, the ancient Greeks believed that it was formed from the spilled milk of the goddess Hera. But in Mesopotamia there was a legend about a river made from the same drink. Thus, many peoples associated a large cluster of stars with milk, which is how our galaxy got its name.

How many stars are there in the Milky Way?

It is quite difficult to accurately calculate the number of stars in our galaxy, because they say that there are more than 200 billion of them. As you understand, studying them all with the modern development of science is very problematic, so scientists turn their attention only to the most interesting representatives of these space objects. Take, for example, the alpha star from the constellation Carina (Carina). This is a supergiant star, which for a long time held the title of the largest and brightest.

The Sun is also one of the stars in the Milky Way, which, however, does not have any outstanding characteristics. This is a small yellow dwarf, which has become famous only for being the source of life on our planet for millions of years.

Astronomers from all over the world have long compiled lists of stars that are distinguished by their outstanding mass or brightness. But this does not mean at all that each of them received its own name. Typically, star names consist of letters, numbers and the names of the constellations to which they belong. Thus, the brightest star in the Milky Way is designated on astronomical maps as R136a1, and R136 is nothing more than the name of the nebula from which it comes. This star has indescribable power that cannot be compared with anything. R136a1 shines 8.7 million times brighter than our Sun, making it very difficult to imagine any life near it.

But colossal power does not mean that the R136a1 has impressive dimensions. The list of the largest stars is headed by UY Scuti, which is 1.7 thousand times larger than the size of our star. That is, if instead of the Sun there was this star, then it would occupy the entire space from the center of our system to Saturn.

Although no matter how large and powerful these stars are, their total mass cannot be compared with the mass of the Black Hole, which is located in the center of the galaxy. It is her colossal energy that holds the Milky Way, forcing it to move in a certain order.

Our galaxy is not just a scattering of stars in the night sky. This is a huge system that consists of hundreds of billions of stars, including our Sun.

We all live on Earth - a small planet lost in the vast expanses of the Universe. We all live under the same sky, which constantly beckons us to itself. On a clear night you can see several thousand stars there, but how many billions of worlds are hidden behind the strip of the Milky Way? It is not surprising that people have raised their heads upward for thousands of years in the hope of unraveling the mystery of the Universe.

The world of stars is extremely diverse and the more we learn about it, the more exciting the journey through the starry sky becomes. On a clear night, the sky above our head is strewn with many stars. They appear to be small sparkling dots because they are very far from the Earth. In fact, stars are huge hot balls of gas, similar to our Sun. The hottest of them are blue, less hot than the Sun - red. Stars differ in size from each other. There are giant stars, and there are dwarf stars.

Scientists who observe the stars are called astronomers. They suggest that the beginning of our Universe was the terrible, unimaginably powerful Big Bang. It occurred approximately 15 billion years ago. Since then, a lot of time has passed before life appeared on Earth. After the Big Bang, giant clouds of gas and dust formed in space. Many of them quickly rotated, as if in a whirlpool, became hotter and denser and finally turned into luminous balls of hot gases. This is how the stars appeared.

A huge cluster of stars in outer space form the Galaxy. There are millions of galaxies of different shapes and sizes scattered throughout the Universe. The galaxy in which our Earth is located is called the Milky Way. If you look at our Galaxy from above, it looks like a spiral. Our Earth is located on one of the turns of this spiral, so on a dark night we see a blurry milky white stripe stretching across the entire sky. So they call it the Milky Way.

Our Sun is also a star, a relatively small one. Nine planets and thousands of small asteroid planets and comets revolve around it. All these celestial bodies form the Solar System, at the center of which is the Sun. Celestial bodies orbiting planets are their natural satellites. The Earth's natural satellite is the Moon.

Each of the nine planets follows a different path around the Sun, called an orbit. The Earth is rushing at a speed of 108,000 kilometers per hour, that is, a thousand times faster than the airliner. Our planet makes one revolution around the Sun per year.

Orbiting very close to the Sun are four small planets, consisting mainly of rocks and metals - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These planets are called terrestrial planets.

Between the terrestrial planets and the giant planets is the asteroid belt.

A little further away there are four large planets, consisting mainly of hydrogen and helium. Giant planets do not have a solid surface, but they have an exceptionally powerful atmosphere. Jupiter is the largest of them. Next come Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. All giant planets have a large number of satellites, as well as rings. Saturn has an amazingly beautiful ring.

The very last planet of the solar system is Pluto, which in its physical properties is closer to the satellites of the giant planets.

Beyond the orbit of Pluto, the so-called Kuiper Belt, the second asteroid belt, has been discovered.

The solar system is not the only planetary system in the Universe. In recent years, more than 50 planets have been discovered orbiting stars located near the Sun.

Many planets can be seen without binoculars or a telescope, with the naked eye: Venus, the brightest of the nine planets, shines with a bluish light. Jupiter is bright yellow. Mars is reddish and Saturn is blue-gray. The planets themselves do not emit light. We see them because they are illuminated by the Sun and are not too far away.

In the summer I relax at the dacha and in the evenings, together with my mother, I like to admire the stars. Their shine fascinates and beckons. In the evening, when the Sun had already set behind the horizon and only a glow remained in the sky, I noticed a very bright star. Mom told me that this is not a star, but a planet - Venus. She is the most beautiful of the planets. Venus has captivated people's gaze for thousands of years.

Venus is very easy to see, as it is much brighter than the brightest stars. A distinctive feature of Venus is its smooth white color. It does not move very far from the Sun in the sky. Therefore, it is very easy to see at sunset or sunrise.

Without the Sun, the Earth would turn into a lifeless, dead plain. Our life is possible only thanks to the Sun. People understood this in ancient times and revered the Sun as a deity. Today we know: the Sun is a star that gives us light and warmth. The temperature of the Sun ranges from 5900 degrees on its surface to 15 million degrees inside its core. Scientists have found that the Sun is not only light and heat, but also a powerful source of various radiations.

From Earth to the Sun 150 million kilometers, or 8 light minutes. This means that the light of the Sun reaches the Earth in 8 minutes. If the Earth were located closer to the Sun, everything on it would dry out from the heat. If the Sun were further away, the Earth would be covered with ice.

No matter how much scientists study our Solar System, the number of questions that are just waiting for their discoverers does not decrease. Our little Galaxy will be full of mysteries and wonders for a long time. I hope that when I grow up, I will be able to solve at least a small mystery of this wonderful world. Try, guys, to raise your heads up more often to admire these mysterious stars.

The Milky Way Galaxy is very majestic and beautiful. This huge world is 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 27,000 light years from the center of the galaxy, in one of the arms called the Orion arm.

Our solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This happens in the same way as the Earth rotates around the Sun. The solar system completes a revolution every 200 million years.

Deformation

The Milky Way Galaxy appears as a disk with a bulge in the center. It's not the perfect shape. On one side there is a bend north of the center of the galaxy, and on the other it goes down, then turns to the right. Outwardly, this deformation somewhat resembles a wave. The disk itself is deformed. This is due to the presence of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds nearby. They rotate around the Milky Way very quickly - this was confirmed by the Hubble telescope. These two dwarf galaxies are often called 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. As a result, the Milky Way galaxy is deformed. The structure of our galaxy is special; it has a halo.

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

Halo

Wondering what kind of galaxy the Milky Way is, scientists began to study it. They managed to find out that 90% of its mass consists of dark matter, which is why a mysterious halo appears. Everything that is visible to the naked eye from Earth, namely that luminous matter, is approximately 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 experiments, it was suggested that if there were no halo, then the speed of movement of the planets and other elements of the Milky Way would be less than now. Because of this feature, it was assumed that most of the components consist of invisible mass or dark matter.

Number of stars

The Milky Way galaxy is considered one of the most unique. The structure of our galaxy is unusual; there are more than 400 billion stars in it. 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 different stars, and only a small part is visible from Earth, about 3000. It is impossible to say exactly how many stars are contained in the Milky Way, so how the galaxy is constantly losing objects due to them going supernova.

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 enormous size, we can see about 6,000 light years ahead, but the size of the galaxy is 120,000 light years. It may be larger, but even the most powerful telescopes cannot see beyond that. 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, allowing scientists to create star maps.

What happened before

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

View of the Milky Way

Not a single scientist or astronomer can say exactly what our Milky Way looks like from above. This is due to the fact that Earth is located in the Milky Way galaxy, 26,000 light years from the center. Because of this location, it is not possible to take pictures of the entire Milky Way. Therefore, any image of a galaxy is either pictures of other visible galaxies or someone's imagination. And we can only guess what she really looks like. There is even a possibility that we now know as much about it as the ancient people who believed 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 its very heart. According to assumptions, its size is a little more than 22 million kilometers, and this is the hole itself.

All the substances that try to get into the hole form a huge disk, almost 5 million times larger than our Sun. But even this retraction force does not prevent new stars from forming at the edge of the black hole.

Age

Based on estimates of the composition of the Milky Way galaxy, it was possible to establish an estimated age of about 14 billion years. The oldest star is just over 13 billion years old. 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 it began to look the way 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 closest 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 occupies a huge area. And this is only a small part of the stellar surroundings.

The Virgo Supercluster contains more than a hundred groups of clusters over an area more than 110 million light-years in diameter. 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 full revolution in 1 year. Our Sun orbits in the Milky Way around the center of the galaxy. Our galaxy moves in relation to a special radiation. CMB radiation is a convenient reference point that allows you to determine the speed of a wide variety of matters in the Universe. Studies have shown that our galaxy rotates at a speed of 600 kilometers per second.

Appearance of the name

The galaxy got its name because of its special appearance, reminiscent of spilled milk in the night sky. The name was given to it back in Ancient Rome. Back then it was called the “milk road.” To this day it is still called the Milky Way, associating the name with the appearance of a white stripe in the night sky, with spilled milk.

References to the galaxy have been found since the era of Aristotle, who said that the Milky Way is the place where the celestial spheres contact the terrestrial ones. Until the telescope was created, no one added anything to this opinion. And only from the seventeenth century people began to look at the world differently.

Our neighbors

For some reason, many people think that the closest galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda. But this opinion is not entirely correct. Our closest “neighbor” 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 enormous class M densities were discovered in Canis.

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

Collision of galaxies

Recently, information has become increasingly common that the closest 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 capable of uniting galaxies, but due to the expansion of the Universe they should move away from each other. But, contrary to all the rules, these objects are moving 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 a model of the collision shown in this video:

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

Lost galaxies

Scientists conducted a large-scale study of the starry sky, covering approximately an eighth of it. As a result of an 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.

The telescope installed in Chile took a huge number of images that allowed scientists to assess the sky. The images estimate that our galaxy is surrounded by a halo of dark matter, thin gas and few stars, remnants of dwarf galaxies that were once swallowed up by the Milky Way. Having a sufficient amount of data, scientists were able to assemble a “skeleton” of dead galaxies. It’s like in paleontology - it’s difficult to say from a few bones what a creature looked like, but with enough data, you can collect a skeleton and guess what the lizard was like. 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 disintegrated galaxies that were “eaten” by the Milky Way.

We're under fire

According to scientists, the hypervelocity stars located in our galaxy did not originate in it, but in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Theorists cannot explain many aspects 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. Having revised the theory, scientists came to the conclusion that such a speed can only develop due to the influence of a black hole located in the center of the Milky Way.

Recently, more and more stars have been discovered that do not move from the center of our galaxy. After analyzing the trajectory of ultra-fast stars, scientists were able to find out that we are under attack by the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Death of the planet

By observing the planets in our galaxy, scientists were able to see how the planet died. She was consumed by the aging star. During the expansion and transformation into a red giant, the star absorbed its planet. And another planet in the same system changed its orbit. Having seen this and assessed the state of our Sun, scientists came to the conclusion that the same thing would happen to our luminary. In about five million years it will become 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 the galactic arms in the night sky. They look like white stripes, reminiscent of a milk road that is strewn with stars. These are the branches of the Milky Way. They are best seen in clear weather in the warm season, when there is the most cosmic dust and gases.

The following arms are distinguished in our galaxy:

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

It also contains a core, a gas ring, and 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. In our “home” a variety of processes are constantly taking place: stars are born, they decay, we are bombarded by other galaxies, dust and gases appear, stars change and go out, others flare up, they dance around... And all this happens somewhere out there, 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 branches and planets of our galaxy in a matter of minutes, and travel to other universes.

The illustration shows our current understanding of the structure of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: NASA

Why is our galaxy called the Milky Way? We have a lot of crazy names for space objects. They are sometimes named after their shape, such as the Horsehead Nebula. Sometimes they have a name borrowed from their constellation, such as (Andromeda Galaxy). But what about ours? Why does this band of stars in the sky have a food-related name?

First, let's talk a little about what the Milky Way is. Astronomers believe it is a barred spiral galaxy, a spiral-shaped galaxy that has a line of stars down the middle, as you can see in the illustration above. If you were flying through the entire Milky Way galaxy at the speed of light, you would...

The Milky Way is part of a cluster of galaxies called the Local Group. We are on a collision course with the most massive and largest galaxy of this family, called the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). The Milky Way is the second largest galaxy in the Local Group, and the Triangulum galaxy is the third largest. This group, according to rough estimates, includes 30 galaxies.

To get an idea of ​​the sheer size of the Milky Way galaxy, you'll be glad to hear what's not next to it. NASA reports that we are located about 265 quadrillion kilometers from our galaxy's supermassive black hole, which was discovered in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and is called Sagittarius A*.

The magnetic field of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. Credit: ESA, Plank Collaboration.

As for how our galaxy got its name, it's all because of its appearance, a milky stripe stretching across the sky. Although identifying the galaxy's arms is quite a difficult task, if you go into the countryside, this milky region really begins to dominate the sky. The ancient Romans called our galaxy Via Lactea, which literally translates to “Road of Milk.”

And also the Greek name "galaxy" also translates as "milk". It's hard to say whether this was a coincidence because the origins of the name Milky Way and the Greek word for the galaxy are long lost in prehistory, although some sources report that the name reflects inspiration from the appearance of the Milky Way galaxy in the sky.

It took us thousands of years to understand the nature of what we were looking at. Back in the time of Aristotle, according to the Library of Congress, the Milky Way was the place “where the celestial spheres came into contact with the terrestrial spheres.” Without a telescope it was difficult to tell more, but things began to change in the early 1600s.

A beautiful view of our Milky Way galaxy. If other alien civilizations exist, can we find them? Credit: ESO/S.Guisard.

One important early observation, the library adds, was that of the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei. He is best known for his discoveries - which he spotted through a telescope. In 1610, in his voluminous work Sidereus Nuncius, Galileo reported that his observations showed that the Milky Way was not a single band, but had certain pockets with a higher density of stars.

But understanding the true nature of our galaxy eluded us for some time. Other early observations indicated that the stars were part (Thomas Wainwright, 1750), a claim that was later shown to be erroneous, and that the stars appeared denser on one side of the strip than on the other (William Herschel, late 1700- x years).

Only in the 20th century did astronomers discover that galaxy called Milky Way- just one of a huge number of galaxies. This happened, according to the library, in several stages: making observations of distant "spiral nebulae" that showed that their speeds of retreat were faster than the escape speed of our own galaxy (Vesto Slipher, 1912); observations that the (temporarily bright star) in Andromeda was dimmer than our own galaxy (Herber Curtis, 1917); and most famously, Alvin Hubble's observations of galaxies showing that they were very far from Earth in reality (1920).

A survey of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field sky in ultraviolet and infrared light. Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and Z. Levay (STScI).

There are more galaxies there than we could have imagined even a century ago. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers periodically use the powerful observatory to peer at tiny patches of the sky.

Several large sky surveys have been carried out, revealing "deep fields" of galaxies at distances of billions of light years. It is difficult to estimate how many of them there are; scientists put the numbers on the order of 100 billion galaxies. This will keep astronomers busy for some time.

Title of the article you read "Why is our galaxy called the Milky Way?".