Milky Way

[Cheezdude]

Our solar system, exists in whats called, "The Orion Spur", just off
one of the outer bands of a spiral galaxy, we call "The Milky Way".
It takes us aproximately 270 million years, (give or take 9 or 10
million), to go all the way around the galaxy. And, we've only gone
around it about 16 times, since our planet was formed. And that's
just our galaxy. It's a big universe.

[Arglebargle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWVshkVF0SY

[BoggleKng]

Gotta love MP!!!

[Cheezdude]

I love Monty Python! I'm so thankful they're in our galaxy! :mrgreen:

[hammerofthegods]

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party

http://vimeo.com/4505537

[Cheezdude]

Wow! That's really cool! What you see, is one of the spiral arms, of the Milky
way galaxy. And, in actuality, it is the earth turning that makes it appear to
be rising.

[Cheezdude]

The "Orion spur" that we live in, is part of one of the spiral arms of our galaxy.
Which is aproximately 27000 light years long. It's that spiral arm that we see
as the "Milky way". There are more than 100 billion stars in this galaxy. With
new ones being formed, and old ones dieing, all the time.

[u.s.blues]

:wook:

[ricksvw]

the Milky Way is small...

[Cheezdude]

An update. Our galaxy, the milky way, is actualy 120,000 light years across. And it takes our solar system a mere 230 million years
to orbit. I was a little off. But imagine our planet, when last, we were on this side of the galaxy. All life that existed then, is extinct.
What will our planet be like when we get here again? At the center of the galaxy, is a super massive black hole, named sagittarius A.
The most destructive force we know. But without it, life as we know it, wouldn't exist. It destroys, and creates, at the same time. A
contradiction, for sure. But isn't it a metaphor for the universe as a whole? Our sun, is 27,000 light years from Sagittarius A, but caught
in it's grip, none the less. This is all about putting our existence in perspective. (And keeping Mr. Pat from deleting this thread.) :cool:

[In A Silent Way]

A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is speeding toward a collision with our Milky Way Galaxy, and when it hits -- in less than 40 million years -- it may set off a spectacular burst of stellar fireworks.

"The leading edge of this cloud is already interacting with gas from our Galaxy," said Felix J. Lockman, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), leader of a team of astronomers who used the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to study the object. The scientists presented their findings to the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Austin, Texas. The cloud, called Smith's Cloud, after the astronomer who discovered it in 1963, contains enough hydrogen to make a million stars like the Sun. Eleven thousand light-years long and 2,500 light-years wide, it is only 8,000 light-years from our Galaxy's disk. It is careening toward our Galaxy at more than 150 miles per second, aimed to strike the Milky Way's disk at an angle of about 45 degrees.
"This is most likely a gas cloud left over from the formation of the Milky Way or gas stripped from a neighbor galaxy. When it hits, it could set off a tremendous burst of star formation. Many of those stars will be very massive, rushing through their lives quickly and exploding as supernovae. Over a few million years, it'll look like a celestial New Year's celebration, with huge firecrackers going off in that region of the Galaxy," Lockman said.


http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2008/smithscloud/SC2/SC2_lowres.jpg

[Cheezdude]

Cool. I didn't know about that, but I have heard we are headed for a collision
with the Andromeda galaxy. I wonder if the two are connected?

[HasATinyHat]

I find it interesting that all the stars in our galaxy travel around the galactic center AT THE SAME SPEED, which is counter-intuitive.

the rim of a bike wheel travels much faster than a point closer to the axel....but not so with regard to a galaxy.

weird

[Cheezdude]

The rim of the wheel, may travel faster, but has more distance to cover.
It appears to be in sinc with the axle, but, in reality it's just an illusion.