Milky Way

3/13/2014 Milky Way - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Milky Way
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar

Milky Way Galaxy
System.[12][13][14][nb 1] Its name “milky” is derived from
its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the
night sky in which the naked eye cannot distinguish
individual stars. The term “Milky Way” is a translation of
the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος
(galaxías kýklos, "milky circle").[15][16][17] From the
Earth, the Milky Way appears like a band because its
disk-shaped structure is viewed from within the Galaxy.
Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into
individual stars with his telescope in 1610. In the past,
astronomers thought that all of the stars in the universe
were contained inside of the Milky Way. Following the An image of the Milky Way in the night sky above
1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Paranal Observatory. The guide-star laser is aimed at
Shapley and Heber Curtis,[18] observations by Edwin the Galactic Center.
Hubble definitively showed that the Milky Way is just
Observation data
one of many galaxies.[19]
Type SBc [1] (barred spiral galaxy)
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy some 100,000– 100–120 kly (31–37 kpc)[2]
Diameter
120,000 light-years in diameter which contains 100–400
billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets as Thickness of ≈1 kly (0.3 kpc)[2][3]
well.[20][21] The Solar System is located within the disk, thin stellar disk
about 27,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center, Number of stars 400 billion (4×1011 ±2×1011)[4][5]
on the inner edge of a spiral-shaped concentration of gas
Oldest known >13.6 Gyr[6]
and dust called the Orion Arm. The stars in the inner
≈10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars star
that radiate from the bulge. The very center is marked by Mass 1.0–1.5 × 1012 M☉[7]
an intense radio source named Sagittarius A* which is 27.2 ± 1.1 kly
Sun's distance
likely to be a supermassive black hole.
to Galactic (8.34 ± 0.34 kpc)[8]
Stars and gases at a wide range of distances from the Center
Galactic center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per Sun's Galactic 240 Myr (negative rotation)[9]
second. The constant rotation speed contradicts the laws rotation period
of Keplerian dynamics and suggests that much of the
Spiral pattern 50 Myr[10]
mass of the Milky Way does not emit or absorb
electromagnetic radiation. This mass has been given the rotation period
name “dark matter”.[22] The rotational period is about Bar pattern 15–18 Myr[10]
240 million years at the position of the Sun.[9] The rotation period
Galaxy as a whole is moving at a velocity of Speed relative 552 ± 6 km/s [11]
approximately 600 km per second with respect to
to CMB rest
extragalactic frames of reference. The oldest known star
frame
in the Galaxy is at least 13.6 billion years old and thus
must have formed shortly after the Big Bang.[6] See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies
Surrounded by several smaller satellite galaxies, the
Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which forms a subcomponent of the Virgo Supercluster.
Contents
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way 1/25
Contents
1 Appearance
2 Size and mass
3 Stars and planets
4 Structure
4.1 Galactic quadrants
4.2 Galactic Center
4.3 Spiral arms
4.4 Halo
4.4.1 Gaseous halo
4.5 Sun’s location and neighborhood
4.6 Galactic rotation
5 Formation
5.1 Age
6 Environment
7 Velocity
8 Etymology and mythology
9 Astronomical history
10 See also
11 Notes
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
Appearance
When observing the night sky, the term “Milky Way” is limited to the hazy band of white light some 30 degrees
wide arcing across the sky.[23] Although all of the individual stars that can be seen in the entire sky with the
naked eye are part of the Milky Way Galaxy[24], the light in this band originates from the accumulation of un-
resolved stars and other material when viewed in the direction of the Galactic plane. Dark regions within the
band, such as the Great Rift and the Coalsack, correspond to areas where light from distant stars is blocked by
interstellar dust.
The Milky Way has a relatively low surface brightness. Its visibility can be greatly reduced by background light
such as light pollution or stray light from the moon. It is readily visible when the limiting magnitude is +5.1 or
better, while showing a great deal of detail at +6.1.[25] This makes the Milky Way difficult to see from any
brightly lit urban or suburban location but very prominent when viewed from a rural area when the moon is
below the horizon.[nb 2]
As viewed from Earth, the visible region of the Milky Way’s Galactic plane occupies an area of the sky that
includes 30 constellations. The center of the Galaxy lies in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius; it is here
that the Milky Way is brightest. From Sagittarius, the hazy band of white light appears to pass westward to the
Galactic anticenter in Auriga. The band then continues westward the rest of the way around the sky back to
Sagittarius. The band divides the night sky into two roughly equal hemispheres.
The Galactic plane is inclined by about 60 degrees to the ecliptic (the

plane of the Earth’s orbit). Relative to the celestial equator, it passes
as far north as the constellation of Cassiopeia and as far south as the
constellation of Crux, indicating the high inclination of Earth’s
equatorial plane and the plane of the ecliptic relative to the Galactic
plane. The north Galactic pole is situated at right ascension 12h 49m,
declination +27.4° (B1950) near β Comae Berenices, and the south
Galactic pole is near α Sculptoris. Because of this high inclination,
depending on the time of night and the year, the arc of Milky Way can
appear relatively low or relatively high in the sky. For observers from
about 65 degrees north to 65 degrees south on the Earth's surface the
Milky Way passes directly overhead twice a day.
A view of the Milky Way towards the

Constellation Sagittarius (including the
Galactic Center) as seen from a non-
light polluted area (the Black Rock
Desert, Nevada)
A fish-eye mosaic of the Milky Way arching at a high inclination across the night sky, shot from a dark
sky location in Chile
Size and mass

The stellar disk of the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 100,000 ly (30 kpc) in diameter, and is, on average,
about 1,000 ly (0.3 kpc) thick.[2][3] As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if it were
reduced to 100 m (110 yd) in diameter, the Solar System, including the hypothesized Oort cloud, would be no
more than 1 mm (0.04 in) in width, about the size of a grain of sand. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, would
be 4.2 mm (0.2 in) distant.[nb 3] Alternatively visualized, if the Solar System out to Pluto were the size of a US
quarter (25 mm or 1 in in diameter), the Milky Way would have a diameter of 2,000 kilometers, an area
approximately one-third the size of the United States.[26]
Estimates for the mass of the Milky Way vary, depending upon the method and data used. At the low end of the
estimate range, the mass of the Milky Way is 5.8 × 1011 solar masses (M☉), somewhat smaller than the
Andromeda Galaxy.[27][28][29] Measurements using the Very Long Baseline Array in 2009 found velocities as
large as 254 km/s for stars

at the outer edge of the
Milky Way.[30] As the
orbital velocity depends on
the total mass inside the
orbital radius, this suggests
that the Milky Way is more
massive, roughly equaling
the mass of Andromeda
Galaxy at 7 × 1011 M☉
within 160,000 ly (49 kpc) A photograph of galaxy NGC 6744,
of its center.[31] A 2010 considered by scientists to greatly
measurement of the radial resemble the Milky Way Galaxy
Schematic illustration showing the
velocity of halo stars finds
galaxy in profile
the mass enclosed within 80
kiloparsecs is 7 × 1011 M☉.[32] Most of the mass of the Galaxy
appears to be matter of unknown form which interacts with other matter through gravitational but not
electromagnetic forces; this is dubbed dark matter. A dark matter halo is spread out relatively uniformly to a
distance beyond one hundred kiloparsecs from the Galactic Center. Mathematical models of the Milky Way
suggest that the total mass of the entire Galaxy lies in the range 1–1.5 × 1012 M☉.[7] More-recent studies
indicate a mass as large as 4.5 × 1012 M☉.[33]
Stars and planets

The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars[34] and may have up to 400 billion stars.[35][36] The exact
figure depends on the number of very low-mass, or dwarf stars, which are hard to detect, especially at distances
of more than 300 ly (90 pc) from the Sun. As a comparison, the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy contains an
estimated one trillion (1012) stars.[37] Filling the space between the stars is a disk of gas and dust called the
interstellar medium. This disk has at least a comparable extent in radius to the stars,[38] while the thickness of the
gas layer ranges from hundreds of light years for the colder gas to thousands of light years for warmer
gas.[39][40] Both gravitational microlensing and planetary transit observations indicate that there may be at least
as many planets bound to stars as there are stars in the Milky Way,[20][41] while microlensing measurements
indicate that there are more rogue planets not bound to host stars than there are stars.[42][43] The Milky Way
Galaxy contains at least one planet per star, resulting in 100–400 billion planets, according to a January 2013
study of the five-planet star system Kepler-32 with the Kepler space observatory.[21] A different January 2013
analysis of Kepler data estimated that at least 17 billion Earth-sized exoplanets reside in the Milky Way
Galaxy.[44] On November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler space mission data, that there
could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of sun-like stars and red dwarf
stars within the Milky Way Galaxy.[45][46][47] 11 billion of these estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like
stars.[48] The nearest such planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists.[45][46] Such Earth-
sized planets may be more numerous than gas giants.[20] Besides exoplanets, "exocomets", comets beyond the
Solar System, have also been detected and may be common in the Milky Way Galaxy.[44]
The disk of stars in the Milky Way does not have a sharp edge beyond which there are no stars. Rather, the
concentration of stars decreases with distance from the center of the Galaxy. For reasons that are not
understood, beyond a radius of roughly 40,000 ly (13 kpc) from the center, the number of stars per cubic
parsec drops much faster with radius.[49] Surrounding the Galactic disk is a spherical Galactic Halo of stars and
globular clusters that extends further outward, but is limited in size by the orbits of two Milky Way satellites, the
Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds, whose closest approach to the Galactic center is about 180,000 ly
(55 kpc).[50] At this distance or beyond, the orbits of most halo objects would be disrupted by the Magellanic
Clouds. Hence, such objects would probably be ejected from the vicinity of the Milky Way. The integrated
absolute visual magnitude of the Milky Way is estimated to be −20.9.[51]
360-degree panorama view of the Milky Way Galaxy (an assembled mosaic of photographs)
Structure
The Galaxy consists of a bar-shaped core region surrounded by a
disk of gas, dust and stars. The gas, dust and stars are organized in
roughly logarithmic spiral arm structures (see Spiral arms below). The
mass distribution within the Galaxy closely resembles the type SBc in
the Hubble classification, which represents spiral galaxies with
relatively loosely wound arms.[1] Astronomers first began to suspect
that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, rather than an ordinary
spiral galaxy, in the 1990s.[53] Their suspicions were confirmed by the This artist’s impression shows how
Spitzer Space Telescope observations in 2005[54] that showed the the Milky Way galaxy would look
Galaxy's central bar to be larger than previously suspected. from very different perspectives than
we get from the Earth. From some
Galactic quadrants angles the central bulge shows up as
a peanut shaped glowing ball of stars
Main article: Galactic quadrant and from above the central narrow
bar appears clearly. The many spiral
A galactic quadrant, or quadrant of the galaxy, refers to one of four arms and their associated dust clouds
circular sectors in the division of the Milky Way galaxy. In actual are also clearly seen.
astronomical practice, the delineation of the galactic quadrants is
based upon the galactic coordinate system, which places the Sun as the pole of the mapping system.
Quadrants are described using ordinals—for example, "1st galactic quadrant",[55] "second galactic
quadrant",[56] or "third quadrant of the Galaxy".[57] Viewing from the north galactic pole with 0 degrees (°) as
the ray that runs starting from the Sun and through the galactic center, the quadrants are as follow:
1st galactic quadrant – 0° ≤ longitude (ℓ) ≤ 90°[58]

2nd galactic quadrant – 90° ≤ ℓ ≤ 180°[56]
3rd galactic quadrant – 180° ≤ ℓ ≤ 270°[57]
4th galactic quadrant – 270° ≤ ℓ ≤ 360° (0°)[55]
Galactic Center
Main article: Galactic Center
The Sun is 26,000–28,000 ly (8.0–8.6 kpc) from the Galactic

Center. This value is estimated using geometric-based methods or by
measuring selected astronomical objects that serve as standard
candles, with different techniques yielding various values within this
approximate range.[8][59][60][61][62] In the inner few kpc (around
10,000 light-years radius) is a dense concentration of mostly old stars
in a roughly spheroidal shape called the bulge.[63] It has been
proposed that our galaxy lacks a bulge formed due to a collision and
merger between previous galaxies and that instead has a
pseudobulge formed by its central bar.[64]
The Galactic Center is marked by an intense radio source named

Sagittarius A*. The motion of material around the center indicates Artist's conception of the spiral
that Sagittarius A* harbors a massive, compact object.[65] This structure of the Milky Way with two
concentration of mass is best explained as a supermassive black major stellar arms and a bar[52]
hole[nb 4][8][59] with an estimated mass of 4.1–4.5 million times the
mass of the Sun.[59] Observations indicate that there are
supermassive black holes located near the center of most normal
galaxies.[66][67]
The nature of the Galaxy's bar is actively debated, with estimates for
its half-length and orientation spanning from 1–5 kpc (3,000–
16,000 ly) and 10–50 degrees relative to the line of sight from Earth
to the Galactic Center.[61][62][68] Certain authors advocate that the
Galaxy features two distinct bars, one nestled within the other.[69] In A false-color infrared image of the
most galaxies, Wang et al. report, the rate of accretion of the core of the Milky Way Galaxy taken
supermassive black hole is slow, but the Milky Way seems to be an by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
important exception. X-ray emission is aligned with the massive stars Older cool stars are blue, dust
surrounding the central bar.[70] However, RR Lyr variables do not features lit up by large hot stars are
shown in a reddish hue, and the
trace a prominent Galactic bar.[62][71][72] The bar may be surrounded
bright white spot in the middle marks
by a ring called the "5-kpc ring" that contains a large fraction of the
the site of Sagittarius A*, the super-
molecular hydrogen present in the Galaxy, as well as most of the
massive black hole at the center of
Milky Way's star-formation activity. Viewed from the Andromeda
the Galaxy.
Galaxy, it would be the brightest feature of our own Galaxy.[73]
In 2010, two gigantic spherical bubbles of high energy emission were

detected to the north and the south of the Milky Way core, using data
of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The diameter of each of
the bubbles is about 25,000 light-years (7.7 kpc); they stretch up to
Grus and to Virgo on the night-sky of the southern hemisphere.[74][75]
Subsequently, observations with the Parkes Telescope at radio
frequencies identified polarized emission which is associated with the
Fermi bubbles. These observations are best interpreted as a Illustration of the two gigantic X-
magnetized outflow driven by star formation in the central 640 ly ray/gamma-ray bubbles (blue-violet)
(200 pc) of the Galaxy.[76] of the Milky Way (center)
Spiral arms
Outside the gravitational influence of the Galactic bars, astronomers generally organize the structure of the
interstellar medium and stars in the disk of the Milky Way into four spiral arms.[77] Spiral arms typically contain
a higher density of interstellar gas and dust than the Galactic average as well as a greater concentration of star
formation, as traced by H II regions[78][79] and molecular clouds.[80]
Maps of the Milky Way's spiral structure are notoriously uncertain and exhibit striking
differences.[52][77][79][81][82][83][84][85] Some 150 years after Alexander (1852)[86] first suggested that the Milky
Way was a spiral, there is currently no consensus on the nature of the Galaxy's spiral arms. Perfect logarithmic
spiral patterns only crudely describe features near the Sun;[79][84] namely since galaxies commonly exhibit arms
that branch, merge, twist unexpectedly, and feature a degree of irregularity.[62][84][85] The possible scenario of
the Sun within a spur / Local arm[79] emphasizes that point and indicates that such features are probably not
unique, and exist elsewhere in the Galaxy.[84]
As in most spiral galaxies, each spiral arm can be described as a logarithmic spiral. Estimates of the pitch angle
of the arms range from about 7° to 25°.[87][88] There are thought to be four spiral arms which all start near the
Galaxy's center. These are named as follows, with the positions of the arms shown in the image at right:
Color Arm(s)
3-kpc Arm (Near 3 kpc Arm and Far 3 kpc Arm) and
cyan
Perseus Arm
Norma and Outer arm (Along with extension discovered in
purple
2004[89])
green Scutum–Centaurus Arm
pink Carina–Sagittarius Arm
There are at least two smaller arms or spurs, including:
Orion–Cygnus Arm (which contains the Sun and Solar
orange Observed (normal lines) and
System)
extrapolated (dotted lines) structure
Two spiral arms, the Scutum–Centaurus arm and the Carina– of the spiral arms. The gray lines
Sagittarius arm, have tangent points inside the Sun's orbit about the radiating from the Sun's position
center of the Milky Way. If these arms contain an overdensity of stars (upper center) list the three-letter
compared to the average density of stars in the Galactic disk, it would abbreviations of the corresponding
be detectable by counting the stars near the tangent point. Two constellations.
surveys of near-infrared light, which is sensitive primarily to red giant
stars and not affected by dust extinction, detected the predicted overabundance in the Scutum–Centaurus arm
but not in the Carina–Sagittarius arm: the Scutum-Centaurus Arm contains approximately 30% more red giant
stars than would be expected in the absence of a spiral arm.[87][90] In 2008, Robert Benjamin of the University
of Wisconsin–Whitewater used this observation to suggest that the Milky Way possesses only two major stellar
arms: the Perseus arm and the Scutum–Centaurus arm. The rest of the arms contain excess gas but not excess
old stars.[52] In December 2013, astronomers found that the distribution of young stars and star-forming regions
matches the four-arm spiral description of the Milky Way.[91][92][93] Thus, the Galaxy appears to have two
spiral arms as traced by old stars and four spiral arms as traced by gas and young stars. The explanation for this
apparent discrepancy is unclear.[93]
The Near 3 kpc Arm (also called Expanding 3 kpc Arm or simply 3 kpc Arm) was discovered in the 1950s by
astronomer van Woerden and collaborators through 21-centimeter radio measurements of HI (atomic
hydrogen).[94][95] It was found to be expanding away from the center of the galaxy at more than 50 km/s. It is
located in the fourth galactic quadrant at a distance of about 5.2 kpc from the Sun and 3.3 kpc from the galactic
center. The Far 3 kpc Arm was discovered in 2008 by astronomer Tom Dame (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA). It's
located in the first galactic quadrant at a distance of 3 kpc (about 10,000 ly) from the galactic center. [96][95]
A simulation published in 2011 suggested that the Milky Way may have obtained its spiral arm structure as a
result of repeated collisions with the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy.[97]
It has been suggested that the Milky Way contains two different spiral patterns: an inner one, formed by the
Sagittarius arm, that rotates fast and an outer one, formed by the Carina and Perseus arms, whose rotation
velocity is slower and whose arms are tightly wound. In this scenario, suggested by numerical simulations of the
dynamics of the different spiral arms, the outer pattern would form an outer pseudoring[98] and the two patterns
would be connected by the Cygnus arm.[99]
Outside of the major spiral arms is the Monoceros Ring (or Outer Ring), a ring of gas and stars torn from other
galaxies billions of years ago.
Halo
The Galactic disk is surrounded by a spheroidal halo of old stars and globular clusters, of which 90% lie within
100,000 light-years (30 kpc) of the Galactic Center.[100] However, a few globular clusters have been found
farther, such as PAL 4 and AM1 at more than 200,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center. About 40%
of the galaxy's clusters are on retrograde orbits, which means they move in the opposite direction from the Milky
Way rotation.[101] The globular clusters can follow rosette orbits about the Galaxy, in contrast to the elliptical
orbit of a planet around a star.[102]
While the disk contains dust which obscures the view in some wavelengths, the halo component does not.
Active star formation takes place in the disk (especially in the spiral arms, which represent areas of high density),
but does not take place in the halo, as there is little gas cool enough to collapse into stars.[9] Open clusters are
also located primarily in the disk.[103]
Discoveries in the early 21st century have added dimension to the knowledge of the Milky Way's structure.
With the discovery that the disk of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) extends much further than previously
thought,[104] the possibility of the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy extending further is apparent, and this is
supported by evidence from the 2004 discovery of the Outer Arm extension of the Cygnus Arm.[89][105] With
the discovery of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy came the discovery of a ribbon of galactic debris as the
polar orbit of the dwarf and its interaction with the Milky Way tears it apart. Similarly, with the discovery of the
Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy, it was found that a ring of galactic debris from its interaction with the Milky Way
encircles the Galactic disk.
On January 9, 2006, Mario Jurić and others of Princeton University announced that the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey of the northern sky found a huge and diffuse structure (spread out across an area around 5,000 times the
size of a full moon) within the Milky Way that does not seem to fit within current models. The collection of stars
rises close to perpendicular to the plane of the spiral arms of the Galaxy. The proposed likely interpretation is
that a dwarf galaxy is merging with the Milky Way. This galaxy is tentatively named the Virgo Stellar Stream and
is found in the direction of Virgo about 30,000 light-years (9 kpc) away.[106]
Gaseous halo
In addition to the stellar halo, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku have provided
evidence that there is a gaseous halo with a large amount of hot gas. The halo extends for hundreds of thousand
of light years, much further than the stellar halo and close to the distance of the Large and Small Magellanic
Clouds. The mass of this hot halo is nearly equivalent to the mass of the galaxy itself.[107][108][109] The
temperature of this halo gas is between 1 million and 2.5 million kelvin, a few hundred times hotter than the
surface of the sun.[110]
Observations of distant galaxies indicate that the Universe had about one-sixth as much baryonic (ordinary)
matter as dark matter when it was just a few billion years old. However, only about half of those baryons are
accounted for in the modern Universe based on observations of nearby galaxies like the Milky Way.[111] If the
finding that the mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of the galaxy is confirmed, it could be the identity of
the missing baryons around the Milky Way.[111]
Sun’s location and neighborhood
The Sun is near the inner rim of the Galaxy's Orion Arm, within the
Local Fluff of the Local Bubble, and in the Gould Belt, at a distance
of 8.33 ± 0.35 kiloparsecs (27,200 ± 1,100 ly) from the Galactic
Center.[8][59][112] The Sun is currently 5–30 parsecs (16–98 ly) from
the central plane of the Galactic disk.[113] The distance between the
local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 2,000
parsecs (6,500 ly).[114] The Sun, and thus the Solar System, is found
in the Galactic habitable zone.
There are about 208 stars brighter than absolute magnitude 8.5 within
a sphere with a radius of 15 parsecs (49 ly) from the Sun, giving a
density of one star per 69 cubic parsec, or one star per 2,360 cubic
light-year (from List of nearest bright stars). On the other hand, there Diagram of the Sun’s location in the
are 64 known stars (of any magnitude, not counting 4 brown dwarfs) Milky Way Galaxy. The angles
within 5 parsecs (16 ly) of the Sun, giving a density of about one star represent longitudes in the galactic
per 8.2 cubic parsec, or one per 284 cubic light-year (from List of coordinate system.
nearest stars). This illustrates the fact that there are far more faint
stars than bright stars: in the entire sky, there are about 500 stars
brighter than apparent magnitude 4 but 15.5 million stars brighter than
apparent magnitude 14.[115]
The apex of the Sun's way, or the solar apex, is the direction that the
Sun travels through space in the Milky Way. The general direction of
the Sun's Galactic motion is towards the star Vega near the
constellation of Hercules, at an angle of roughly 60 sky degrees to the
direction of the Galactic Center. The Sun's orbit about the Galaxy is
expected to be roughly elliptical with the addition of perturbations due
to the Galactic spiral arms and non-uniform mass distributions. In
addition, the Sun oscillates up and down relative to the Galactic plane Diagram of the stars in the Solar
approximately 2.7 times per orbit. This is very similar to how a simple neighborhood
harmonic oscillator works with no drag force (damping) term. These
oscillations were until recently thought to coincide with mass lifeform extinction periods on Earth.[116] However,
a reanalysis of the effects of the Sun's transit through the spiral structure based on CO data has failed to find a
correlation.[117]
It takes the Solar System about 240 million years to complete one orbit of the Galaxy (a Galactic year),[9] so
the Sun is thought to have completed 18–20 orbits during its lifetime and 1/1250 of a revolution since the origin
of humans. The orbital speed of the Solar System about the center of the Galaxy is approximately 220 km/s or
0.073% of the speed of light. At this speed, it takes around 1,400 years for the Solar System to travel a
distance of 1 light-year, or 8 days to travel 1 AU (astronomical unit).[118]
Galactic rotation
The stars and gas in the Galaxy rotate about its center differentially,
meaning that the rotation period varies with location. As is typical for
spiral galaxies, the orbital speed of most stars in the Galaxy does not
depend strongly on their distance from the center. Away from the
central bulge or outer rim, the typical stellar orbital speed is between
210 and 240 km/s.[121] Hence the orbital period of the typical star is
directly proportional only to the length of the path traveled. This is
Galaxy rotation curve for the Milky
unlike the situation within the Solar System, where two-body
Way. Vertical axis is speed of rotation
gravitational dynamics dominate and different orbits have significantly
about the Galactic Center. Horizontal
different velocities associated with them. The rotation curve (shown in
axis is distance from the Galactic
the figure) describes this rotation. Toward the center of the galaxy the
Center in kpcs. The Sun is marked
orbit speeds are too low while beyond 7 kpcs the speeds are too high
with a yellow ball. The observed
to match what would be expected from the universal law of
curve of speed of rotation is blue.
gravitation.
The predicted curve based upon
If the Galaxy contained only the mass observed in stars, gas, and stellar mass and gas in the Milky Way
other baryonic (ordinary) matter, the rotation speed would decrease is red. Scatter in observations roughly
with distance from the center. However, the observed curve is indicated by gray bars. The difference
relatively flat, indicating that there is additional mass that cannot be is due to dark matter. [22][119][120]
detected directly with electromagnetic radiation. This inconsistency is
attributed to dark matter.[22] Alternatively, a minority of astronomers propose that a modification of the law of
gravity may explain the observed rotation curve.[122]
Formation
Main article: Galaxy formation and evolution
The Milky Way began as one or several small overdensities in the mass distribution in the Universe shortly after
the Big Bang. Some of these overdensities were the seeds of globular clusters in which the oldest remaining stars
in what is now the Milky Way formed. These stars and clusters now comprise the stellar halo of the Galaxy.
Within a few billion years of the birth of the first stars, the mass of the Milky Way was large enough so that it
was spinning relatively quickly. Due to conservation of angular momentum, this led the gaseous interstellar
medium to collapse from a roughly spheroidal shape to a disk. Therefore, later generations of stars formed in
this spiral disk. Most younger stars, including the Sun, are observed to be in the disk.[123][124]
Since the first stars began to form, the Milky Way has grown through both galaxy mergers (particularly early in
the Galaxy's growth) and accretion of gas directly from the Galactic halo.[124] The Milky Way is currently
accreting material from two of its nearest satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, through the
Magellanic Stream. Direct accretion of gas is observed in high-velocity clouds like the Smith Cloud.[125][126]
However, properties of the Milky Way such as stellar mass, angular momentum, and metallicity in its outermost
regions suggest it has undergone no mergers with large galaxies in the last 10 billion years. This lack of recent
major mergers is unusual among similar spiral galaxies; its neighbour the Andromeda Galaxy appears to have a
more typical history shaped by more recent mergers with relatively large galaxies.[127][128]
According to recent studies, the Milky Way as well as Andromeda lie in what in the galaxy color–magnitude
diagram is known as the green valley, a region populated by galaxies in transition from the blue cloud (galaxies
actively forming new stars) to the red sequence (galaxies that lack star formation). Star-formation activity in
green valley galaxies is slowing as they run out of star-forming gas in the interstellar medium. In simulated
galaxies with similar properties, star formation will typically have been extinguished within about five billion years
from now, even accounting for the expected, short-term increase in the rate of star formation due to the collision
between both our galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy.[129] In fact, measurements of other galaxies similar to our
own suggest it is among the reddest and brightest spiral galaxies that are still forming new stars and it is just
slightly bluer than the bluest red sequence galaxies.[130]
Age
The ages of individual stars in the Milky Way can be estimated by measuring the abundance of long-lived
radioactive elements such as thorium-232 and uranium-238, then comparing the results to estimates of their
original abundance, a technique called nucleocosmochronology. These yield values of about
12.5 ± 3 billion years for CS 31082-001[131] and 13.8 ± 4 billion years for BD +17° 3248.[132] Once a white
dwarf star is formed, it begins to undergo radiative cooling and the surface temperature steadily drops. By
measuring the temperatures of the coolest of these white dwarfs and comparing them to their expected initial
temperature, an age estimate can be made. With this technique, the age of the globular cluster M4 was
estimated as 12.7 ± 0.7 billion years. Globular clusters are among the oldest objects in the Milky Way Galaxy,
which thus set a lower limit on the age of the galaxy. Age estimates of the oldest of these clusters gives a best fit
estimate of 12.6 billion years, and a 95% confidence upper limit of 16 billion years.[133]
In 2007, a star in the galactic halo, HE 1523-0901, was estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old, ≈0.5
billion years less than the age of the universe. As the oldest known object in the Milky Way at that time, this
measurement placed a lower limit on the age of the Milky Way.[134] This estimate was determined using the
UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph of the Very Large Telescope to measure the relative strengths of spectral lines
caused by the presence of thorium and other elements created by the R-process. The line strengths yield
abundances of different elemental isotopes, from which an estimate of the age of the star can be derived using
nucleocosmochronology.[134]
The age of stars in the galactic thin disk has also been estimated using nucleocosmochronology. Measurements
of thin disk stars yield an estimate that the thin disk formed 8.8 ± 1.7 billion years ago. These measurements
suggest there was a hiatus of almost 5 billion years between the formation of the galactic halo and the thin
disk.[135]
Environment
Main article: Local Group
The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are a binary system of giant spiral galaxies belonging to a group of
50 closely bound galaxies known as the Local Group, itself being part of the Virgo Supercluster.
Two smaller galaxies and a number of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group orbit the Milky Way. The largest of
these is the Large Magellanic Cloud with a diameter of 14,000 light-years. It has a close companion, the Small
Magellanic Cloud. The Magellanic Stream is a stream of neutral hydrogen gas extending from these two small
galaxies across 100° of the sky. The stream is thought to have been dragged from the Magellanic Clouds in tidal
interactions with the Milky Way.[136] Some of the dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way are Canis Major
Dwarf (the closest), Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, Ursa Minor Dwarf, Sculptor Dwarf, Sextans Dwarf,
Fornax Dwarf, and Leo I Dwarf. The smallest Milky Way dwarf galaxies are only 500 light-years in diameter.
These include Carina Dwarf, Draco Dwarf, and Leo II Dwarf. There may still be undetected dwarf galaxies
which are dynamically bound to the Milky Way, as well as some that have already been absorbed by the Milky
Way, such as Omega Centauri.
In January 2006, researchers reported that the heretofore

unexplained warp in the disk of the Milky Way has now been
mapped and found to be a ripple or vibration set up by the Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds as they circle the Galaxy, causing vibrations
when they pass through its edges. Previously, these two galaxies, at
around 2% of the mass of the Milky Way, were considered too small
to influence the Milky Way. However, in a computer model, the
movement of these two galaxies creates a dark matter wake that
amplifies their influence on the larger Milky Way.[137]
Current measurements suggest the Andromeda Galaxy is approaching

us at 100 to 140 kilometers per second. In 3 to 4 billion years, there
may be an Andromeda–Milky Way collision, depending on the
importance of unknown lateral components to the galaxies' relative Diagram of the galaxies in the Local
motion. If they collide, the chance of individual stars colliding with Group relative to the Milky Way
each other is extremely low, but instead the two galaxies will merge to
form a single elliptical galaxy over the course of about a billion
years.[138]
Velocity
Although special relativity states that there is no "preferred" inertial
frame of reference in space with which to compare the Milky Way,
the Galaxy does have a velocity with respect to cosmological frames
of reference.
One such frame of reference is the Hubble flow, the apparent motions The position of the Local Group
of galaxy clusters due to the expansion of space. Individual galaxies, within the Virgo Supercluster
including the Milky Way, have peculiar velocities relative to the
average flow. Thus, to compare the Milky Way to the Hubble flow,
one must consider a volume large enough so that the expansion of the Universe dominates over local, random
motions. A large enough volume means that the mean motion of galaxies within this volume is equal to the
Hubble flow. Astronomers believe the Milky Way is moving at approximately 630 km per second with respect
to this local co-moving frame of reference.[139] The Milky Way is moving in the general direction of the Great
Attractor and other galaxy clusters, including the Shapley supercluster, behind it.[140] The Local Group (a cluster
of gravitationally bound galaxies containing, among others, the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy) is part
of a supercluster called the Local Supercluster, centered near the Virgo Cluster: although they are moving away
from each other at 967 km/s as part of the Hubble flow, this velocity is less than would be expected given the
16.8 million pc distance due to the gravitational attraction between the Local Group and the Virgo Cluster.[141]
Another reference frame is provided by the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The Milky Way is moving
at 552 ± 6 km/s[11] with respect to the photons of the CMB, toward 10.5 right ascension, −24° declination
(J2000 epoch, near the center of Hydra). This motion is observed by satellites such as the Cosmic Background
Explorer (COBE) and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) as a dipole contribution to the
CMB, as photons in equilibrium in the CMB frame get blue-shifted in the direction of the motion and red-shifted
in the opposite direction.[11]
Etymology and mythology

Main articles: List of names for the Milky Way and Milky Way
(mythology)
In western culture the name "Milky Way" is derived from its appearance
as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky.
The term is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, in turn derived
from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας, short for γαλαξίας κύκλος (pr. In Hindu mythology the Milky
galaktikos kyklos, "milky circle"). The Ancient Greek γαλαξίας Way was churned by means of a
(galaxias), from root γαλακτ-, γάλα (milk) + -ίας (forming adjectives), is serpent to acquire the nectar of
also the root of "galaxy", the name for our, and later all such, collections life. Statue at Suvarnabhumi
of stars. [15][142][143][144] The Milky Way "milk circle" was just one of 11 Airport in Bangkok.
circles the Greeks identified in the sky, others being the zodiac, the
meridian, the horizon, the equator, the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn,
Arctic and Antarctic circles, and two colure circles passing through both poles.[145]
There are many creation myths around the world which explain the origin of the Milky Way. In Greek myth, the
Milky Way was caused by milk spilt by Hera when suckling Heracles.[146] It is also described as the road to
mount Olympus, and the path of ruin made by the chariot of the Sun god Helios.[147]
In Sanskrit and several other Indo-Aryan languages, the Milky Way is called Akash Ganga (आकाशगं गा,
Ganges of the heavens); it is held to be sacred in the Hindu Puranas (scriptures), and the Ganges and the
Milky Way are considered to be terrestrial and celestial analogs.[148][149] Kshira Sagar ( ीर, ocean of milk)
is an alternative name for the Milky Way in Hindu texts in Sanskrit.[150]
Astronomical history
See also: Galaxy#Observation history
In Meteorologica (DK 59 A80), Aristotle (384–322 BC) wrote that

the Greek philosophers Anaxagoras (ca. 500–428 BC) and
Democritus (450–370 BC) proposed that the Milky Way might
consist of distant stars. However, Aristotle himself believed the Milky
Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars The shape of the Milky Way as
which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition deduced from star counts by William
takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the Herschel in 1785; the Solar System
world which is continuous with the heavenly motions."[151] The was assumed near center
Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus the Younger (c. 495–570
A.D.) criticized this view, arguing that if the Milky Way were sublunary it should appear different at different
times and places on the Earth, and that it should have parallax, which it does not. In his view, the Milky Way
was celestial. This idea would be influential later in the Islamic world.[152]
The Persian astronomer Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) proposed that the Milky Way is "a collection of
countless fragments of the nature of nebulous stars".[153] The Andalusian astronomer Avempace (d. 1138)
proposed the Milky Way to be made up of many stars but appears to be a continuous image due to the effect of
refraction in the Earth's atmosphere, citing his observation of a conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in 1106 or 1107
as evidence.[151] Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) proposed that the Milky Way is "a myriad of tiny stars
packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars" and that these stars are larger than planets.[154]
According to Jamil Ragep, the Persian astronomer Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (1201–1274) in his Tadhkira writes:
"The Milky Way, i.e. the Galaxy, is made up of a very large number of small, tightly clustered stars, which, on
account of their concentration and smallness, seem to be cloudy patches. Because of this, it was likened to milk
in color."[155]
Actual proof of the Milky Way consisting of many stars came in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used a telescope to
study the Milky Way and discovered that it was composed of a huge number of faint stars.[156] In a treatise in
1755, Immanuel Kant, drawing on earlier work by Thomas Wright, speculated (correctly) that the Milky Way
might be a rotating body of a huge number of stars, held together by gravitational forces akin to the Solar
System but on much larger scales. The resulting disk of stars would be seen as a band on the sky from our
perspective inside the disk. Kant also conjectured that some of the nebulae visible in the night sky might be
separate "galaxies" themselves, similar to our own. Kant referred to both our Galaxy and the "extragalactic
nebulae" as "island universes", a term still current up to the 1930s.[157]
The first attempt to describe the shape of the Milky Way and the position of the Sun within it was carried out by
William Herschel in 1785 by carefully counting the number of stars in different regions of the visible sky. He
produced a diagram of the shape of the Galaxy with the Solar System close to the center.
In 1845, Lord Rosse constructed a new telescope and was able to distinguish between elliptical and spiral-
shaped nebulae. He also managed to make out individual point sources in some of these nebulae, lending
credence to Kant's earlier conjecture.[158]
In 1917, Heber Curtis had observed the nova S Andromedae within

the Great Andromeda Nebula (Messier object 31). Searching the
photographic record, he found 11 more novae. Curtis noticed that
these novae were, on average, 10 magnitudes fainter than those that
occurred within our Galaxy. As a result he was able to come up with
a distance estimate of 150,000 parsecs. He became a proponent of
the "island universes" hypothesis, which held that the spiral nebulae
were actually independent galaxies.[159] In 1920 the Great Debate
took place between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, concerning Photograph of the "Great Andromeda
the nature of the Milky Way, spiral nebulae, and the dimensions of the Nebula" from 1899, later identified as
universe. To support his claim that the Great Andromeda Nebula was the Andromeda Galaxy
an external galaxy, Curtis noted the appearance of dark lanes
resembling the dust clouds in the Milky Way, as well as the significant
Doppler shift.[160]
The matter was conclusively settled by Edwin Hubble in the early 1920s using the Mount Wilson observatory
100 inch (2.5 m) Hooker telescope. With the light-gathering power of this new telescope he was able to
produce astronomical photographs that resolved the outer parts of some spiral nebulae as collections of
individual stars. He was also able to identify some Cepheid variables that he could use as a benchmark to
estimate the distance to the nebulae. He found that the Andromeda Nebula is 275,000 parsecs from the Sun, far
too distant to be part of the Milky Way.[19][161]
See also
Baade's Window
Galactic coordinate system
MilkyWay@Home, a distributed computing project that attempts to generate highly accurate three-
dimensional dynamic models of stellar streams in the immediate vicinity of our Milky Way Galaxy.
NGC 6744, a galaxy thought to closely resemble the Milky Way
Oort constants
Notes
1. ^ Jay M. Pasachoff in his text book "Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe" states the term Milky Way
should refer exclusively to the band of light that the galaxy forms in the night sky, while the galaxy should
receive the full name Milky Way Galaxy. See:
Pasachoff, Jay M. (1994). Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe. Harcourt School. p. 500.
ISBN 0-03-001667-3.
2. ^ See also Bortle Dark-Sky Scale
3. ^ The scale is 1 mm equals 1 ly.
4. ^ For a photo see: "Sagittarius A*: Milky Way monster stars in cosmic reality show"
(http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/0203long/). Chandra X-ray Observatory. Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics. January 6, 2003. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
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Further reading
Thorsten Dambeck in Sky and Telescope, "Gaia's Mission to the Milky Way", March 2008, p. 36–39.
Cristina Chiappini, The Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way, American Scientist,
November/December 2001, pp. 506–515 (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~george/ay20/Chiappini-
MilkyWay.pdf)
External links
3D Galaxy Map (http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Galaxy/) - a 3D representation of the Milky Way galaxy
Basic Milky Way plan map (http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/171) - includes spiral arms and Orion spur
Milky Way – IRAS (infrared) survey (http://www.sky-map.org/?
ra=12.0593794293245&de=-20.27239516216098&zoom=0&show_grid=1&show_constellation_lines
=1&show_constellation_boundaries=1&show_const_names=0&show_galaxies=1&img_source=IRAS)
- wikisky.org
Milky Way – H-Alpha survey (http://www.sky-map.org/?
ra=12.0593794293245&de=-20.27239516216098&zoom=0&show_grid=1&show_constellation_lines
=1&show_constellation_boundaries=1&show_const_names=0&show_galaxies=1&img_source=HALP
HA) - wikisky.org
The Milky Way Galaxy (http://www.seds.org/messier/more/mw.html) - SEDS Messier website
MultiWavelength Milky Way (http://mwmw.gsfc.nasa.gov/) - NASA site with images and VRML models
Milky Way Explorer (http://galaxymap.org/drupal/node/127) - images in infrared with radio, microwave
and hydrogen-alpha.
Milky Way Panorama (9 billion pixels) (http://www.360pano.eu/show/?id=736).
Milky Way Video (02:37) - VISTA IR Telescope Image (October 24, 2012)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o8rNBtaI_4)
Animated tour of the Milky Way (http://alienworlds.southwales.ac.uk/milkyWay.html), University of
South Wales
all-sky map (http://sci.esa.int/science-e-
media/img/ec/PLANCK_FSM_03_Black_Regions_v02_extragalactic_frame_orig.jpg) of microwave
radiation (Planck (spacecraft) one-year all-sky survey)
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3/13/2014 Milky Way - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar

The Galactic plane is inclined by about 60 degrees to the ecliptic (the

A view of the Milky Way towards the

Size and mass

large as 254 km/s for stars

Stars and planets

1st galactic quadrant – 0° ≤ longitude (ℓ) ≤ 90°[58]

Main article: Galactic Center

The Sun is 26,000–28,000 ly (8.0–8.6 kpc) from the Galactic

The Galactic Center is marked by an intense radio source named

In 2010, two gigantic spherical bubbles of high energy emission were

Sun’s location and neighborhood

In January 2006, researchers reported that the heretofore

Current measurements suggest the Andromeda Galaxy is approaching

Etymology and mythology

In Meteorologica (DK 59 A80), Aristotle (384–322 BC) wrote that

In 1917, Heber Curtis had observed the nova S Andromedae within

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Milky_Way&oldid=599290632"

This page was last modified on 12 March 2014 at 14:29.

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