How many systems are there in the Milky Way galaxy? Place of the Solar System in the Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way Galaxy is very majestic and 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 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. He is not 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 compiled various models, which took 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 galaxy is considered one of the most unique Milky Way. 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 of the most 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, since 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 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.

Thickness does not allow dust to pass through visible light, but infrared light passes through it, 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 objects 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 us 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.” It is still called that way - the Milky Way, associating the name specifically with appearance white streak on 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 a place where celestial spheres contact with earthly 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 neighbours

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. Opened in Pse unusual stars with huge class M density.

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

Collision of galaxies

IN Lately Information is increasingly being found 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 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 it will form new system, with familiar galactic shapes.

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 assemble 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 from 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:

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

It also contains 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. 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.

Divide by social groups, our Milky Way galaxy will belong to a strong “middle class”. Thus, it belongs to the most common type of galaxy, but at the same time it is not average in size or mass. Galaxies that are smaller than the Milky Way are larger than those that are larger than it. Our “star island” also has at least 14 satellites - other dwarf galaxies. They are doomed to circle around the Milky Way until they are absorbed by it, or fly away from an intergalactic collision. Well, for now this is the only place where life probably exists - that is, you and me.

But the Milky Way remains the most mysterious galaxy in the Universe: being on the very edge of the “star island”, we see only a part of its billions of stars. And the galaxy is completely invisible - it is covered with dense arms of stars, gas and dust. Today we will talk about the facts and secrets of the Milky Way.

Hello, dear guys! And greetings to you, dear parents! I invite you to go on a small journey into the cosmic world, full of the unknown and enchanting.

How often do we look into a dark sky full of bright stars, trying to find constellations discovered by astronomers. Have you ever seen the Milky Way in the sky? Let's take a closer look at this unique cosmic phenomenon. And at the same time we will get information for an educational and interesting “space” project.

Lesson plan:

Why is it called that?

This star trail in the sky is similar to white strip. Ancient people explained this phenomenon seen in the starry night sky using mythological stories. U different nations there were their own versions of the appearance of an unusual sky strip.

The most widespread hypothesis is that of the ancient Greeks, according to which the Milky Way is nothing more than the spilled mother’s milk of the Greek goddess Hera. Yes and explanatory dictionaries interpret the adjective “milky” as “reminiscent of milk.”

There’s even a song about it, you’ve probably heard it at least once. And if not, then listen right now.

Because of the way the Milky Way looks, it has several names:

the Chinese call it the “yellow road”, believing that it looks more like straw;
The Buryats call the star stripe the “seam of the sky” from which the stars scattered;
among the Hungarians it is associated with the road of warriors;
ancient Indians considered it the milk of the evening red cow.

How to see the “milk track”?

Of course, this is not milk that someone spills across the night sky every day. The Milky Way is a giant star system called a “Galaxy”. In appearance, it looks like a spiral, in the center of which there is a core, and arms extend from it like rays, of which the Galaxy has four.

How to find this white path of stars? You can even see a star cluster naked eye in the night sky when there are no clouds. All inhabitants of the Milky Way are located on the same line.

If you are a resident northern hemisphere, then you can discover the place where the scattering of stars is located at midnight in July. In August, when it gets dark earlier, it will be possible to search for the spiral of the Galaxy starting at ten in the evening, and in September - after 20.00. You can see all the beauty by first finding the constellation Cygnus and moving from it with your gaze to the north - northeast.

To see the brightest stellar segments, you need to go to the equator, or even better, closer to 20-40 degrees south latitude. It is there that at the end of April - beginning of May the South Cross and Sirius, between which the cherished galactic star path passes.

When the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpio rise in the eastern part by June-July, the Milky Way gains particular brightness, and clouds of cosmic dust can even be seen between distant stars.

Seeing various photographs, many wonder: why do we see not a spiral, but only a stripe? The answer to this question is very simple: we are inside the Galaxy! If we stand in the center of a sports hoop and raise it at eye level, what will we see? That's right: a stripe in front of your eyes!

The galactic core can be found in the constellation Sagittarius using radio telescopes. But you shouldn’t expect much brightness from it. The central part is the darkest due to large quantity there is cosmic dust in it.

What is the Milky Way made of?

Our Galaxy is just one of millions of star systems that have been found by astronomers, but it is quite a large one. The Milky Way has approximately 300 billion stars. The Sun, which rises every day in the sky, is also part of them, revolving around the core. The Galaxy has stars much larger and brighter than the Sun, and there are smaller ones that emit faint light.

They differ not only in size, but also in color - they can be white-blue (they are the hottest) and red (the coldest). They all move together in a circle along with the planets. Just imagine that we go through a full revolution around the galactic circle in almost 250 million years - that’s how long one galactic year lasts.

Stars live in the strip of the Milky Way, forming groups that scientists call clusters, differing in age and stellar composition.

Small open clusters are the youngest, they are only about 10 million years old, but this is where the massive and bright celestial representatives live. Such groups of stars are located along the edge of the plane.
Globular clusters are very old, they were formed over 10 - 15 billion years, they are located in the center.

10 interesting facts

As always, I advise you to decorate your research work the most interesting “galactic” facts. Watch the video carefully and be surprised!

This is our Galaxy, in which we live among wonderful, bright neighbors. If you are not yet personally familiar with the “milk path,” then quickly go outside to see all the starry beauty in the night sky.

By the way, have you already read the article about our cosmic neighbor the Moon? Not yet? Then take a look here soon)

Good luck in your studies!

Evgenia Klimkovich.

The Milky Way is our home galaxy, in which the solar system is located, in which the planet Earth is located, on which people live. It belongs to the barred spiral galaxies and is included in the Local Group of galaxies along with the Andromeda Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy and 40 dwarf galaxies. The diameter of the Milky Way is 100,000 light years. There are about 200-400 billion stars in our galaxy. Our solar system is located on the outskirts of the galactic disk, in a relatively calm place that allowed life to arise on our planet. Perhaps we are not the only ones living in the Milky Way, but this remains to be seen. Although, in the ocean of the Universe, the entire history of mankind is nothing more than a barely noticeable ripple, it is very interesting for us to explore the Milky Way and follow the developments of events in our native galaxy.

According to astronomers, most stars slowly rotate around galactic centers at a speed of no more than 100 kilometers per second. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Over the past few decades, scientists have discovered about 20 hypervelocity stars in our galaxy. The latest such discovery is object PSR J0002+6216. its movement is 1130 kilometers per second or more than four million kilometers per hour. It is quite enough to get to the same Moon in 6 minutes. According to astronomers from the American National Radio Astronomy Observatory, who discovered it, if such dynamics continue, in the distant future the object will escape from our galaxy.

Planet Earth, 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 the true size of the galaxy are only approximate. And the most interesting thing is that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of such formations, larger or smaller, in the Universe.

The Milky Way Galaxy and what surrounds it

All celestial bodies, including the Milky Way planets, satellites, asteroids, comets and stars, are constantly in motion. Born in a cosmic vortex big bang, all these objects are on the path of their development. Some have more ancient age, others are clearly younger.

The gravitational formation rotates around the center, while individual parts of the galaxy rotate with at different speeds. If in the center the rotation speed of the galactic disk is quite moderate, then at the periphery this parameter reaches values of 200-250 km/s. The Sun is located in one of these areas, closer to the center of the galactic disk. The distance from it to the center of the galaxy is 25-28 thousand light years. The Sun and the Solar System complete a full revolution around the central axis of the gravitational formation in 225-250 million years. Accordingly, in the entire history of its existence, the Solar System has flown around the center only 30 times.

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. The galactic disk is constantly undergoing a process of compaction. This mechanism is caused by the discrepancy between the speed of rotation of the spiral branches and the movement of stars, which 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 the corotational circle, where such vigorous activity is absent: between two spiral branches on the border of the Milky Way arms - Sagittarius and Perseus. This explains the calm in which we remain so long time. For more than 4.5 billion years, we have not been affected by cosmic disasters.

Structure of the Milky Way galaxy

The galactic disk is not homogeneous in its composition. Like other spiral gravitational systems, the Milky Way has three distinguishable regions:

a core formed by a dense star cluster containing a billion stars of varying ages;
the galactic disk itself, formed from clusters of stars, stellar gas and dust;
corona, spherical halo - the region in which globular clusters, dwarf galaxies are located, separate groups stars, cosmic dust and gas.

Near the plane of the galactic disk there 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 region where the Solar System is located, the density of stars is already 1-2 stars per 16 cubic parsecs. As a rule, the age of these celestial bodies is no more than several billion years.

Interstellar gas also concentrates around the plane of the disk, subject to centrifugal forces. Despite the constant speed of rotation of the spiral branches, the interstellar gas is distributed unevenly, 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 in the diagram the structure of the galaxy is quite clear and transparent, then in reality it is almost impossible to examine the central regions of the galactic disk. Gas and dust clouds and clusters of stellar gas hide from our view the light from the center of the Milky Way, in which lives a real space monster - a supermassive black hole. The mass of this supergiant is approximately 4.3 million M☉. Next to the supergiant is a smaller black hole. This gloomy company is complemented by hundreds of dwarf black holes. The black holes of the Milky Way are not only devourers of stellar matter, but also act 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.

The jumper bar is located in the region of the galactic core. Its length is 27 thousand light years. Old stars reign here, red giants, whose stellar matter feeds black holes. The bulk of molecular hydrogen is concentrated in this region, which acts as the main building material for 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 discharge of the hydrogen layer is facilitated by the influence of dwarf galaxies, which have been closely following our galaxy for tens of billions of years.

Theoretical models of our galaxy

Even ancient astronomers tried to prove that the visible stripe in the sky is part of a huge stellar disk rotating around its center. This statement was supported by the mathematical calculations carried out. It was possible to get an idea of our galaxy only thousands of years later, when they came to help science instrumental methods space exploration. 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 is disk-shaped.

Already in our time, research has taken a different turn. Scientists relied on comparing the movements of stars between which there were different distances. Using the parallax method, Jacob Kaptein was able to approximately 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 considerable distance from the periphery of the Milky Way.

The fundamental theory of the existence of galaxies is that of the American astrophysicist Edwin Hubble. He came up with the idea to classify all gravitational formations, dividing them into elliptical galaxies and spiral-type formations. The latter, spiral galaxies, represent the largest group, which includes formations of various sizes. The largest recently discovered spiral galaxy is NGC 6872, with a diameter of more than 552 thousand light years.

Expected future and forecasts

The Milky Way Galaxy appears to be a compact and orderly 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 lasted tens of billions of years and how much longer it will continue is unknown. The only threat looming over our galaxy comes from its nearest neighbor. The Andromeda Galaxy is rapidly approaching us. Scientists suggest that a collision of two gravitational systems could occur in 4.5 billion years.

Such a meeting-merger will mean the end of the world in which we are accustomed to living. The Milky Way, which is smaller in size, will be absorbed more large education. Instead of two large spiral formations, a new elliptical galaxy will appear in the Universe. Until this time, our galaxy will be able to deal with its satellites. Two dwarf galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds - will be absorbed by the Milky Way in 4 billion years.

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