When my teachers used to tell me about the Milky Way, the galaxy we live in, I always assumed that it was named after the candy bar. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized this isn’t true, since our amazing galaxy has been around far longer than Milky Way candy bars have. Either way, our galaxy is pretty cool, and it’s home to the Sun, all of the planets in our solar system (including the Earth!), the stars in the sky, and so much more. By learning about the galaxy in which we live, you’ll be able to understand space and all of its beauty much better.
What is the Milky Way?
Think about the Milky Way candy bar, which is made up of many different ingredients to create the sweet treat you eat. Similarly, a galaxy is a system of “ingredients” such as dust, stars, and gases that are all held together by a gravitational force. The galaxy we live in, the Milky Way, is gigantic. It’s bigger than we can even comprehend. In 2015, scientists conducted a study that led them to believe the Milky Way is 150,000 light years wide! In case you’re wondering what a light year is, it’s just how far light is able to move in one calendar year, which is about 6 trillion miles. Fun fact: light years measure distance, not time! The Milky Way is so large that it’s able to hold somewhere between 100 to 400 billion stars and even more planets that we don’t know about yet. Also, our galaxy is called a barred spiral galaxy, meaning that it resembles a spiral shape with a bar going through it. There are three other types of galaxies; spiral, elliptical, and irregular.
Does the Milky Way weigh a lot?
Not only is the Milky Way vast and large, it is also extremely heavy and weighs more than we are able to comprehend. 95% of the Milky Way consists of dark matter, an invisible type of space matter that is difficult to observe and understand. When you add the mass of all the stars, planets, dark matter, and dust, the Milky Way is about 1.5 trillion times the mass of our Sun. Think about how large the Earth is. The Sun is about the mass of 333,000 Earths, so imagine how immensely large the Milky Way must be! Knowing this, it’s easy to see why the Milky Way is difficult for scientists to learn more about, but with the help of technology and scientific advancements, we know more about our galaxy than ever before.
Why is it called the “Milky Way”?
For me, one of the most interesting parts of our galaxy is its name. When you look at pictures of the Milky Way, however, it’s easy to see why it is called that. The Ancient Greeks named our galaxy this because it looks like spilled milk mixed with stars and dust! In fact, the Milky Way candy bar, which has a milkshake-like filling in the middle, was named after the galaxy we live in. When we look up at the Milky Way during the night, we actually see it from a side view. From this angle, the Milky Way looks illuminated and glowing, creating a beautiful starry picture.
Is there anything we don’t know about the Milky Way?
Just like any subject you learn in school, there is still much to learn about our Milky Way. In fact, there’s between 100 to 200 billion other galaxies in our universe that we know even less about, such as Andromeda (our neighbor galaxy), Messier 82, and Messier 63, just to name a few. Even within our own galaxy, we still don’t fully understand or are able to observe dark matter, a critical part “ingredient” of the Milky Way, along with gases and space dust. However, with the help of scientists and technological advancements, such as the Hubble Telescope, which takes pictures of our galaxies and neighboring galaxies, we know more about the universe than ever before and our knowledge continues to grow. Maybe one day you’ll be a scientist making discoveries about the Milky Way too!