Detailed map of the milky way. Model of galaxy collision on a computer monitor

If you look at the sky on a clear starry night, the first thing that will attract your attention will most likely be a wide whitish stripe, like a road, stretching across the entire sky. This is the Milky Way, mysterious, intriguing, exciting the imagination. After all, it consists of many billions of stars scattered in outer space for many thousands of light years. And among all this multitude there is one star, the dearest to us - our Sun.

What is the Milky Way?

Milky Way- This galaxy, which includes the Solar System. It can be seen from any point on the Earth's surface. It forms a ring encircling the Earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, it passes through the constellation Cassiopeia, a little east of Orion's Belt, approaching the horizon not far from the brightest star, Sirius. Residents of the brightest parts of the Milky Way Northern Hemisphere they can’t admire. They are available to those who live closer to the equator. The bright, uniform glow of many stars, indistinguishable to the eye, is interspersed with dark “clouds” of cosmic dust.

Origin of the name

The ancient Chinese called the Milky Way the “Heavenly River”, and the Romans and Greeks called it the “Heavenly Road”. Modern name comes from the Latin “via lacteal”, which translates as “milk road”. This name goes back to ancient Greek mythology. According to one of the myths, the son of Zeus Hercules was born from a mortal woman. Zeus placed the baby on his wife Hera while she was sleeping so that he would drink her divine milk and gain immortality. Waking up and seeing that she was feeding someone else’s child, the goddess pushed him away from her. A stream of milk sprayed from her breast and froze in the sky, turning into the Milky Way. The word “Galaxy,” by the way, has the same meaning: it is derived from the Greek word γαλακτικός, which is translated as “milk.”

History of the discovery and study of the Milky Way

Galileo Galilei proved that the Milky Way is a huge cluster of stars that are invisible to the naked eye. In 1610 he invented and manufactured a telescope. When he pointed it at the Milky Way, he was amazed: instead of a whitish haze, countless sparkling stars appeared to his gaze. Now they could be considered separately.

In the 18th century, the English scientist William Herschel, counting the number of stars in different parts sky, discovered a large circle, later called the galactic equator. It was in this circle that the Milky Way was located. Thus, Herschel came to the conclusion that the stars are united in a colossal system, flattened towards the galactic equator.

The Milky Way is not the only galaxy, it is one of many galaxies that make up our Universe. This was proven by Edwin Hubble in the 20s of the 20th century.

Having managed to measure the distance to some nebulae, Hubble proved that they cannot enter our Galaxy based on their distance.

Structure of the Milky Way

Milky Way refers to the species spiral galaxies with jumper. Its diameter is 100-120 thousand light years (in kilometers this is one quintillion). It is a relatively flat disk (its thickness is about a thousand light years). The Galaxy contains at least 200 billion stars. According to modern estimates, their number is close to 400 billion. The densest cluster of stars is observed closer to the center of the Milky Way, and towards its edges the density drops sharply.

Center milky way

At the center of the Milky Way's disk is the galactic core, consisting of many billions of old stars. And the center of the core, in turn, is only a few light years in size, but is an unusually massive region (its mass is several million Suns). Modern research show that there is a black hole, and maybe several.

Around the galactic disk there is a kind of corona - a spherical halo. It consists of globular star clusters, dwarf galaxies (Small and Large Magellanic clouds and others), individual stars, and hot gas.
In the plane of the galactic disk, spiral arms (Orion, Perseus, Sagittarius, Cygnus, Centauri) stretch from its center to the edges.

On the outskirts of the Milky Way there are, in addition to stars, regions of gas of high density and sizes of several thousand light years.

Our Sun is located at a distance of 28 thousand light years from the center (two-thirds of the radius), on the periphery of the Milky Way. The plane of the Solar System does not coincide with the plane of the Galaxy; they lie at an angle to each other.

Interactive maps of the Milky Way online.

Several services today provide the opportunity to familiarize yourself in detail with many images of the Milky Way. The best of them are presented below:

Map of the Milky Way 3D. This card high resolution with several functions, which consists of 5,000 megapixel photos. It allows you to change the image scale and angle. In addition, it includes an additional layer with which you can familiarize yourself with the star map (see constellations and their names). The map can be rotated with the mouse in any direction directly on the screen. To go to the map, click on the image:

Map 1

The second map is an infrared image of the Milky Way. More than 800,000 Spitzer telescope frames were stitched together to produce such an accurate and beautiful image. To go to the map, click on the image:

Map 2

The following map is unique in that it provides a wide variety of images of the Milky Way. You can choose the image type in the lower left window from the many options presented. To go to the map, click on the image:

Map 3

What is the future of our Galaxy? Are collisions with other galaxies possible? While scientists cannot give accurate forecasts. Studying and resolving these issues is still ahead.

And finally, a very beautiful shot of the Milky Way from the highest point in Spain:

Artistic photo milky way

> Collision of galaxies. Computer 3D model

Consider quality 3D model of galaxy collision: Consequence modeling, online merger process, central black hole collision.

Who knows how many unsolved secrets and mysteries the unknown and boundless space conceals? People are not destined to fully understand them, even knowledge about their native Solar System quite limited, she is just a speck of dust floating among endless star clusters. For many thousands of years, humanity has been striving to learn all the secrets of the Universe, it has even managed to comprehend some truths, but this knowledge is too limited and superficial.

Numerous slowly float in cold space, sometimes they occur collisions, the scale of which is even difficult to imagine to an ordinary person. These are, without exaggeration, phenomena of universal magnitude and significance, hardly comparable in their entertainment to anything in this world.

Consequences of a galactic collision

When two galaxies collide, the release of energy that accompanies this process cannot be comprehended by the human mind. As a result, two giants, merged into one, begin to glow with double power. This event is extremely long-term from a human point of view and can last several billion years - naturally, for this reason, scientists are deprived of the opportunity to observe the entire merger process from the very beginning to its completion. Fortunately, modern computer technology allow you to simulate the moment galaxy collisions, shortening it hundreds of thousands of times.

Model of galaxy collision on a computer monitor

Attention! Use your mouse pointer to change the angle.

Everyone now has the opportunity to admire the interactive process of galaxy collisions in 3D resolution. The new application allows you to observe the attraction of two galactic nuclei, which are, as a result of which a mesmerizing cosmic dance begins. A certain amount star systems leaves the newly formed galaxy and continues its endless path in the Universe - the program shows them in the form of colored dots.

Animated image of a galaxy collision

Controlling a galactic collision simulation program

All navigation of the program, simulating the collision of galaxies, is carried out using the mouse - you can change the angle by moving it in the program window, the scale can be changed by simply moving the wheel. To reset the simulation and start the process again, click the mouse button.

This application allows you to plunge deeper into the mysteries of the universe and even imagine possible global consequences collisions of two giants - and the Milky Way.

Screenshot from the application

Do you want Milky Way watch online? Google's new visualization service, 100,000 Stars, lets you tour our cosmic environs, either independently or via an interactive tour.

Also available detailed information about the luminaries closest to us. Knowledge of English is necessary, but even if you don’t know it, you can listen to relaxing music and watch beautiful space animation.

Travel across the galaxy made possible

But recently, thanks to interactive visualization of our Galaxy, everyone has the opportunity to travel through the expanses of the Milky Way. Now you just need to open the “Our Galaxy 3D and 100,000 Stars” service in your browser and immerse yourself in a virtual journey in space. Developed by Google, the app includes location data for nearly 120,000 Milky Way stars, collected from a variety of sources, including space missions.

Navigation

Move around interactive map done by panning using a mouse or touchpad.

Clicking on the star of interest will display information about it. In this case, the camera approaches directly the selected star, and the entire star is displayed in the window next to it. necessary information. This makes it possible to study the objects of our Galaxy in detail.

Music

The journey through the interactive space is accompanied by musical works by composer Sam Hulink, who is also known for writing music for computer games, such as Mass Effect.