Parts of the Milky Way

  • The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with a diameter of approximately 200.000 light-years.
  • It contains between 100 and 400 billion stars, including globular clusters.
  • The galactic core hosts a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A.
  • The galaxy will merge with Andromeda in approximately 4 billion years.
Germán Portillo

6 minutes

spiral galaxy

The galaxy that encompasses our solar system, known as the Milky Way, is a colossal mix of stars, planets and gas clouds. It is shaped like a spiral bar and has an average diameter of approximately 200.000 light years. Located at its core is a supermassive black hole, which exerts a powerful gravitational pull that keeps star clusters in a stable orbit. There are different parts of the Milky Way that are interesting to know.

Therefore, in this article we are going to focus on explaining to you what the parts of the Milky Way are, its characteristics and much more.

our galaxy

parts of the milky way

On a night with a clear sky, it is possible to observe the Milky Way only with the naked eye. It appears as a soft, indistinct white light that seems to envelop the celestial sphere. The reason for this is that our solar system is located in a distant region, approximately 25.766 light years from the center of the galaxy, in one of its spiral arms. It takes about 225 million Earth years for the Sun to completely orbit the galactic center.

While the Sun is certainly an important star, it is only one among many within the Milky Way, which contains hundreds of billions of stars. These stars are mainly found scattered either singly or in pairs, but there are also star clusters, known as globular clusters, that are worth noting. These clusters can be closed and compact, or open and more dispersed, and Some can even exceed the size of the Sun up to 50 times.

The Milky Way, as a whole, contains many enigmas that still baffle astronomers and astrophysicists. Its large size and a thick layer of space dust that blocks direct observation of the galactic center contribute to the mystery. As a result, the only way to study it is through the use of radio wave telescopes and infrared telescopes.

The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. Surely you already knew that. But how much do you know about this galaxy we live in? There are millions of characteristics, curiosities and corners that make the Milky Way a special galaxy. It is our heavenly home after all, since it is where the Solar System and all the planets we know are located. The galaxy we live in is packed with stars, supernovae, nebulae, energy, and dark matter. However, there are many things that still remain a mystery to scientists. We are going to tell you many things about the Milky Way, from its characteristics to curiosities and mysteries. Profile of the Milky Way This is the galaxy that forms our home in the universe. Its morphology is quite typical of a spiral with 4 main arms on its disk. It is made up of billions of stars of all types and sizes. One of those stars is the Sun. It is thanks to the Sun that we exist and life has been formed as we know it. The center of the galaxy is at a distance of 26.000 light years from our planet. It is not known for sure if there could be more, but it is known that at least one supermassive hole is in the center of the Milky Way. The black hole becomes the center of our galaxy and has been named Sagittarius A. Our galaxy began to form about 13.000 million years ago and is part of a group of 50 galaxies known as the Local Group. Our neighboring galaxy, called Andromeda, is also part of this group of smaller galaxies, which also includes the Magellanic Clouds. It is still a classification made by the human being. A species that, if you analyze the context of the entire universe and its extension, is nothing. The Local Group mentioned above is itself part of a vastly larger gathering of galaxies. It is called the Virgo supercluster. The name of our galaxy is named after the luminous band that we can see of stars and gas clouds that extend above our sky through the Earth. Although the Earth is inside the Milky Way, we cannot have as complete an understanding of the nature of the galaxy as some outer star systems can. Much of the galaxy is hidden by a thick layer of interstellar dust. This dust does not allow optical telescopes to focus well and discover what is there. We can determine the structure by using telescopes with radio waves or infrared. However, we cannot know with complete certainty what is in the region where interstellar dust is found. We can only detect the forms of radiation that are penetrating dark matter. Main characteristics We are going to analyze a little the main characteristics of the Milky Way. The first thing we will analyze is the dimension. It is shaped like a barred spiral and has a diameter of 100.000-180.000 light years. As mentioned before, the distance to the center of the galaxy is approximately 26.000 light years. This distance is something that human beings will never be able to travel with the life expectancy and technology that we have today. The age of formation is estimated at 13.600 billion years, about 400 million years after the Big Bang (link). The number of stars that this galaxy has is difficult to count. We cannot go one by one counting all the stars there are, since it is not very useful to know exactly. There are an estimated 400.000 billion stars in the Milky Way alone. One of the curiosities that this galaxy has is that it is almost flat. People who argue that the Earth is flat will be proud that this is so too. And it is that the galaxy is 100.000 light years wide but only 1.000 light years thick. It is as if it were a flattened and twisted disk where the planets are embedded in curved arms of gas and dust. Something like that is the solar system, a group of planets and dust with the Sun at the center anchored 26.000 light-years from the turbulent center of the galaxy. Who discovered the Milky Way? It is difficult to know for sure who has discovered the Milky Way. It is known that Galileo Galilei (link) was the first to recognize the existence of a band of light in our galaxy as individual stars in the year 1610. This was the first real test that began when the astronomer pointed his first telescope at the sky and could see that our galaxy is made up of innumerable stars. As early as 1920, Edwin Hubble (link) was the one who provided enough evidence to know that the spiral nebulae in the sky were actually entire galaxies. This fact greatly helped to understand the true nature and shape of the Milky Way. This also helped to discover the true size and to know the scale of the universe in which we are immersed. We are also not entirely sure how many stars the Milky Way has, but it is also not very interesting to know. Counting them is an impossible task. Astronomers try to find the best way to do it. However, telescopes can only see one star brighter than others. Many of the stars are hidden behind the clouds of gas and dust that we mentioned earlier. One of the techniques they use to estimate the number of stars is to observe how fast the stars are orbiting within the galaxy. This somewhat indicates the gravitational pull and mass. Dividing the mass of the galaxy by the average size of a star, we will have the answer.
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Milky Way

Key features

all parts of the milky way

The structure of the Milky Way resembles a flattened spiral that extends over a distance of about 200.000 light years, but it is only about a thousand light years away. However, recent studies have shown that this spiral shape is not uniform and instead undergoes gradual deformation and twisting as it progresses outward from the center of the galaxy.

The galaxy is made up of a staggering number of stars, with estimates ranging from 100 to 400 billion. The age of these stars is also a notable feat, as the oldest reach an age of approximately 13 billion years, just 600 thousand years younger than the rest of the galaxy.

Scientists have projected that in approximately 4 billion years, the Milky Way and its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, will merge to form one colossal galaxy. To better understand the Milky Way, it is interesting to know the characteristics of other black holes, such as the one found in our galaxy, which has been studied in depth.

The structure of the Milky Way is a complex system. It is composed of a rod-shaped central region, which is surrounded by a spiral arm pattern. The bar itself is approximately 27.000 light years long and is made up of a dense concentration of stars and gas. The spiral arms, on the other hand, are extensive and extend from the central region, surrounding the galaxy. These arms host many young, luminous stars and are marked by areas of gas and dust where new stars and planetary systems form.

arms of the milky way
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Arms of the Milky Way

Parts of the Milky Way

location of our galaxy

Among the known galaxies, the Milky Way has a fairly typical structure, with most of them having a spiral shape. The various components that make up the Milky Way can be classified into six different sections, which are:

  • At the center of the galaxy is the galactic nucleus, which It is essentially the heart of the Milky WayThe core is composed of a supermassive black hole, known as Sagittarius A, and an enveloping accretion disk. The disk is essentially a clump of gas clouds heated to extremely high temperatures. This region is characterized by strong infrared and X-ray emissions due to the rapid motion of the gas clouds and high-energy activity. If you're interested in learning more about the supermassive black hole, you can read more about it here. the black hole in the Milky Way.
  • Located near the galactic core, The central bulb is a densely populated sphere of old and low levels. This region is also home to the galaxy's primary globular clusters, which are optically visible as they emerge from the cloud of star dust surrounding the galaxy.
  • The most prominent and recognizable region of the galaxy is known as the galactic disk and extends from the center of the galactic nucleus to approximately 75.000 light years away. This vast area is made up of a dense and luminous set of stars that precedes the appearance of the spiral arms. The disk is typically classified into two distinct sections: a thick disk of mature stars with a high density of matter and a thin disk of younger stars with a lower density.
  • The spiral galaxy is characterized by its outer appendages or "arms" that give it its unique shape. Although they are not easily visible to the naked eye, These appendages were first confirmed in 1953. However, understanding the practical implications of this remains a challenge. Each individual spiral arm has been given a different name, such as the Perseus arm, the outer arm, and the centaur-shield arm, among others.
  • The spherical component of the galaxy is an expansion of the central bulge that extends beyond the upper and lower regions of the galactic disk. This component has an almost spherical shape and is mainly inhabited by external globular clusters, as well as by scattered stars and dwarf stars that lack heavy elements.
  • The least understood aspect of the galaxy's structure is the galactic halo, which lies beyond the visible portion and encompasses a spheroid section of space surrounding the galaxy. This region houses a large amount of dark matter, the mass of which greatly influences the rotation of the galaxy. Experts believe that the galactic halo extends approximately 100.000 light years from the center and has a mass equivalent to that of the rest of the galaxy.
what is in the center of the milky way and characteristics
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What is in the center of the Milky Way

I hope that with this information you can learn more about the parts of the Milky Way and its characteristics.


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