Discover the Milky Way Galaxy

Milky Way
The Milky Way[c] is the galaxy that

includes the Solar System, with the name
describing the galaxy's appearance from
Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night
sky formed from stars that cannot be
individually distinguished by the naked eye.
The term Milky Way is a translation of the
Latin via lactea, from the Greek
γαλακτικὸς κύκλος (galaktikòs kýklos),
meaning "milky circle".[24][25] From Earth,
the Milky Way appears as a band because
its disk-shaped structure is viewed from
within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the
band of light into individual stars with his
telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s,
most astronomers thought that the Milky
Way contained all the stars in the
Universe.[26] Following the 1920 Great
Debate between the astronomers Harlow
Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis,[27]
observations by Edwin Hubble showed
that the Milky Way is just one of many
galaxies.
Milky Way
The Galactic Center as seen from Earth's night

sky (featuring the telescope's laser guide star)
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Sagittarius
Right ascension 17h 45m 40.03599s[1]
Declination −29° 00′ 28.1699″[1]
Distance 7.935–8.277 kpc
(25,881–
26,996 ly)[2][3][4][a]
Characteristics
Type Sb; Sbc; SB(rs)bc[5][6]
Mass 1.15 × 1012[7] M☉
Number of stars 100–500 billion ((1–

4) × 1011)[10][11]
Size 26.8 ± 1.1 kpc
(87,400 ± 3,590 ly)
(diameter; 25.0
mag/arcsec2 B-band
isophote)[8][b]
Thickness of thin 220–450 pc (718–

disk 1,470 ly)[12]
Thickness of thick 2.6 ± 0.5 kpc

disk (8,500 ± 1,600 ly)[12]
Angular momentum ~1 × 1067 J s[13]
Sun's Galactic 212 Myr[14]
rotation period
Spiral pattern 220–360 Myr[15]

rotation period
Bar pattern rotation 160–180 Myr[16]

period
Speed relative to 552.2 ± 5.5 km/s[17]

CMB rest frame
Escape velocity at 550 km/s[18]

Sun's position
Dark matter density +0.0024
0.0088 −0.0018
at Sun's position −3 +0.08
M☉pc (0.35 −0.07

GeV cm−3)[18]
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy
with a D25 isophotal diameter estimated at
26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,590
light-years),[8] but only about 1,000 light
years thick at the spiral arms (more at the
bulge). Recent simulations suggest that a
dark matter area, also containing some
visible stars, may extend up to a diameter
of almost 2 million light-years (613
kpc).[28][29] The Milky Way has several
satellite galaxies and is part of the Local
Group of galaxies, which form part of the
Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a
component of the Laniakea
Supercluster.[30][31]
It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion
stars[32][33] and at least that number of
planets.[34][35] The Solar System is located
at a radius of about 27,000 light-years (8.3
kpc) from the Galactic Center,[36] on the
inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the
spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and
dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000
light-years form a bulge and one or more
bars that radiate from the bulge. The
Galactic Center is an intense radio source
known as Sagittarius A*, a supermassive
black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar
masses.[37][38] Stars and gases at a wide
range of distances from the Galactic
Center orbit at approximately 220
kilometers per second. The constant
rotational speed appears to contradict the
laws of Keplerian dynamics and suggests
that much (about 90%)[39][40] of the mass
of the Milky Way is invisible to telescopes,
neither emitting nor absorbing
electromagnetic radiation. This conjectural
mass has been termed "dark matter".[41]
The rotational period is about 212 million
years at the radius of the Sun.[14]
The Milky Way as a whole is moving at a

velocity of approximately 600 km per
second with respect to extragalactic
frames of reference. The oldest stars in
the Milky Way are nearly as old as the
Universe itself and thus probably formed
shortly after the Dark Ages of the Big
Bang.[42]
Etymology and mythology
The Origin of the Milky Way by Tintoretto (circa 1575–1580)
In the Babylonian epic poem Enūma Eliš,

the Milky Way is created from the severed
tail of the primeval salt water dragoness
Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the
Babylonian national god, after slaying
her.[43][44] This story was once thought to
have been based on an older Sumerian
version in which Tiamat is instead slain by
Enlil of Nippur,[45][46] but is now thought to
be purely an invention of Babylonian
propagandists with the intention to show
Marduk as superior to the Sumerian
deities.[46]
In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son

born by a mortal woman, the infant
Heracles, on Hera's breast while she is
asleep so the baby will drink her divine milk
and thus become immortal. Hera wakes up
while breastfeeding and then realizes she
is nursing an unknown baby: she pushes
the baby away, some of her milk spills, and
it produces the band of light known as the
Milky Way. In another Greek story, the
abandoned Heracles is given by Athena to
Hera for feeding, but Heracles'
forcefulness causes Athena to rip him
from her breast in pain.[47][48][49]
Llys Dôn (literally "The Court of Dôn") is the

traditional Welsh name for the
constellation Cassiopeia. At least three of
Dôn's children also have astronomical
associations: Caer Gwydion ("The fortress
of Gwydion") is the traditional Welsh name
for the Milky Way,[50][51] and Caer
Arianrhod ("The Fortress of Arianrhod")
being the constellation of Corona
Borealis.[52][53]
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
(galaxías kýklos), meaning "milky circle".
The Ancient Greek γαλαξίας (galaxias) –
from root γαλακτ-, γάλα ("milk") + -ίας
(forming adjectives) – is also the root of
"galaxy", the name for our, and later all
such, collections of stars.[24][54][55]
The Milky Way, or "milk circle", was just

one of 11 "circles" the Greeks identified in
the sky, others being the zodiac, the
meridian, the horizon, the equator, the
tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic
Circle and the Antarctic Circle, and two
colure circles passing through both
poles.[56]
Appearance
A view of the Milky Way toward the constellation Sagittarius (including the Galactic Center), as seen from a dark site with
little light pollution (the Black Rock Desert, Nevada)
A time-lapse video capturing the Milky Way arching over ALMA
The Milky Way is visible as a hazy band of

white light, some 30° wide, arching the
night sky.[57] Although all the individual
naked-eye stars in the entire sky are part
of the Milky Way Galaxy, the term "Milky
Way" is limited to this band of light.[58][59]
The light originates from the accumulation
of unresolved stars and other material
located in the direction of the galactic
plane. Brighter regions around the band
appear as soft visual patches known as
star clouds. The most conspicuous of
these is the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud, a
portion of the central bulge of the
galaxy.[60] Dark regions within the band,
such as the Great Rift and the Coalsack,
are areas where interstellar dust blocks
light from distant stars. Peoples of the
southern hemisphere, including the Inca
and Australian aborigines, identified these
regions as dark cloud constellations.[61]
The area of sky that the Milky Way
obscures is called the Zone of
Avoidance.[62]
The Milky Way has a relatively low surface

brightness. Its visibility can be greatly
reduced by background light, such as light
pollution or moonlight. The sky needs to
be darker than about 20.2 magnitude per
square arcsecond in order for the Milky
Way to be visible.[63] It should be visible if
the limiting magnitude is approximately
+5.1 or better and shows a great deal of
detail at +6.1.[64] This makes the Milky
Way difficult to see from brightly lit urban
or suburban areas, but very prominent
when viewed from rural areas when the
Moon is below the horizon.[d] Maps of
artificial night sky brightness show that
more than one-third of Earth's population
cannot see the Milky Way from their
homes due to light pollution.[65]
As viewed from Earth, the visible region of

the Milky Way's galactic plane occupies an
area of the sky that includes 30
constellations.[e] The Galactic Center lies
in the direction of Sagittarius, where the
Milky Way is brightest. From Sagittarius,
the hazy band of white light appears to
pass around to the galactic anticenter in
Auriga. The band then continues the rest
of the way around the sky, back to
Sagittarius, dividing the sky into two
roughly equal hemispheres.
The galactic plane is inclined by about 60°

to the ecliptic (the plane of 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 year, the Milky Way arch may appear
relatively low or relatively high in the sky.
For observers from latitudes
approximately 65° north to 65° south, the
Milky Way passes directly overhead twice
a day.
The Milky Way arching at a high inclination
across the night sky, (this composited
panorama was taken at Paranal Observatory
in northern Chile); the Magellanic Clouds can
be seen on the left; the bright object near top
center is Jupiter in the constellation
Sagittarius, and the orange glow at the
horizon on the right is Antofagasta city with
a jet trail above it; galactic north is
downward.
The Milky Way viewed at different
wavelengths
Astronomical history
The shape of the Milky Way as deduced from star counts by William Herschel in 1785; the Solar System was assumed
near center
In Meteorologica, Aristotle (384–322 BC)
states that the Greek philosophers
Anaxagoras (c. 500–428 BC) and
Democritus (460–370 BC) proposed that
the Milky Way is the glow of stars not
directly visible due to Earth's shadow, while
other stars receive their light from the Sun
(but have their glow obscured by solar
rays).[66] Aristotle himself believed that the
Milky Way was part of the Earth's upper
atmosphere (along with the stars), and
that it was a byproduct of stars burning
that did not dissipate because of its
outermost location in the atmosphere
(composing its great circle). He also said
that the milky appearance of the Milky Way
Galaxy is due to the refraction of the
Earth's atmosphere.[67][68][69] The
Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus
the Younger (c. 495–570 AD) criticized this
view, arguing that if the Milky Way were
sublunary, it should appear different at
different times and places on Earth, and
that it should have parallax, which it does
not. In his view, the Milky Way is celestial.
This idea would be influential later in the
Muslim world.[70]
The Persian astronomer Al-Biruni (973–

1048) proposed that the Milky Way is "a
collection of countless fragments of the
nature of nebulous stars".[71] The
Andalusian astronomer Avempace (d
1138) proposed the Milky Way to be made
up of many stars but appears to be a
continuous image in the Earth's
atmosphere, citing his observation of a
conjunction of Jupiter and Mars in 1106 or
1107 as evidence.[68] The Persian
astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–
1274) in his Tadhkira wrote: "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."[72] 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".[73]
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 is composed of a
huge number of faint stars. Galileo also
concluded that the appearance of the
Milky Way was due to refraction of the
Earth's atmosphere .[74][75][67] In a treatise
in 1755, Immanuel Kant, drawing on earlier
work by Thomas Wright,[76] 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.[77] The resulting disk of stars
would be seen as a band on the sky from
our perspective inside the disk. Wright and
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 the Milky
Way and the "extragalactic nebulae" as
"island universes", a term still current up to
the 1930s.[78][79][80]
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 Milky Way with the Solar
System close to the center.[81]
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.[82][83]
Photograph of the "Great Andromeda Nebula" from 1899, later identified as the Andromeda Galaxy
In 1904, studying the proper motions of

stars, Jacobus Kapteyn reported that
these were not random, as it was believed
in that time; stars could be divided into
two streams, moving in nearly opposite
directions.[84] It was later realized that
Kapteyn's data had been the first evidence
of the rotation of our galaxy,[85] which
ultimately led to the finding of galactic
rotation by Bertil Lindblad and Jan Oort.
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 the Milky Way. 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 independent galaxies.[86][87]
In 1920 the Great Debate took place
between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis,
concerning the nature of the Milky Way,
spiral nebulae, and the dimensions of the
Universe. To support his claim that the
Great Andromeda Nebula is 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.[88]
The controversy was conclusively settled

by Edwin Hubble in the early 1920s using
the Mount Wilson observatory 2.5 m
(100 in) 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.[89][90]
Astrography
Map of the Milky Way Galaxy with the constellations that cross the galactic plane in each direction and the known
prominent components annotated, including main arms, spurs, bar, nucleus/bulge, notable nebulae, and globular clusters
An all-sky view of stars in the Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies, based on the first year of observations from Gaia
satellite, from July 2014 to September 2015. The map shows the density of stars in each portion of the sky. Brighter
regions indicate denser concentrations of stars. Darker regions across the Galactic Plane correspond to dense clouds of
interstellar gas and dust that absorb starlight.
The ESA spacecraft Gaia provides

distance estimates by determining the
parallax of a billion stars and is mapping
the Milky Way with four planned releases
of maps in 2016, 2018, 2021 and
2024.[91][92] Data from Gaia has been
described as "transformational". It has
been estimated that Gaia has expanded
the number of observations of stars from
about 2 million stars as of the 1990s to 2
billion. It has expanded the measurable
volume of space by a factor of 100 in
radius and a factor of 1,000 in
precision.[93]
A study in 2020 concluded
that Gaia detected a wobbling motion of
the galaxy, which might be caused by
"torques from a misalignment of the disc's
rotation axis with respect to the principal
axis of a non-spherical halo, or from
accreted matter in the halo acquired
during late infall, or from nearby,
interacting satellite galaxies and their
consequent tides".[94]
Sun's location and neighborhood

Diagram of the Milky Way with the position of the Solar System marked by a yellow arrow and a red dot in the Orion Arm.
The dot roughly covers the larger surroundings of the Solar System, the space between the Radcliffe wave and Split linear
structures (formerly the Gould Belt).[95]
Artistic close-up of the Orion Arm with the main features of the Radcliffe Wave and Split linear structures, and with the
Solar System surrounded by the closest large scale celestial features at the surface of the Local Bubble at a distance of
400–500 light years.
The Sun is near the inner rim of the Orion

Arm, within the Local Fluff of the Local
Bubble, between the Radcliffe wave and
Split linear structures (formerly Gould
Belt).[95] Based upon studies of stellar
orbits around Sgr A* by Gillessen et al.
(2016), the Sun lies at an estimated
distance of 27.14 ± 0.46 kly
(8.32 ± 0.14 kpc)[36] from the Galactic
Center. Boehle et al. (2016) found a
smaller value of 25.64 ± 0.46 kly
(7.86 ± 0.14 kpc), also using a star orbit
analysis.[96] The Sun is currently 5–30
parsecs (16–98 ly) above, or north of, the
central plane of the Galactic disk.[97] The
distance between the local arm and the
next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about
2,000 parsecs (6,500 ly).[98] The Sun, and
thus the Solar System, is located in the
Milky Way's galactic habitable zone.[99][100]
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 parsecs, or one star per
2,360 cubic light-years (from List of
nearest bright stars). On the other hand,
there are 64 known stars (of any
magnitude, not counting 4 brown dwarfs)
within 5 parsecs (16 ly) of the Sun, giving a
density of about one star per 8.2 cubic
parsecs, or one per 284 cubic light-years
(from List of 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.[101]
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 Milky Way 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 passes through the Galactic plane
approximately 2.7 times per orbit.[102] This
is very similar to how a simple harmonic
oscillator works with no drag force
(damping) term. These oscillations were
until recently thought to coincide with
mass lifeform extinction periods on
Earth.[103] A reanalysis of the effects of the
Sun's transit through the spiral structure
based on CO data has failed to find a
correlation.[104]
It takes the Solar System about 240 million
years to complete one orbit of the Milky
Way (a galactic year),[105] 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 Milky Way is
approximately 220 km/s (490,000 mph) or
0.073% of the speed of light. The Sun
moves through the heliosphere at
84,000 km/h (52,000 mph). 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).[106] The Solar System is headed in
the direction of the zodiacal constellation
Scorpius, which follows the ecliptic.[107]
Galactic quadrants
Diagram of the Sun's location in the Milky Way, the angles represent longitudes in the galactic coordinate system.
A galactic quadrant, or quadrant of the

Milky Way, refers to one of four circular
sectors in the division of the Milky Way. In
astronomical practice, the delineation of
the galactic quadrants is based upon the
galactic coordinate system, which places
the Sun as the origin of the mapping
system.[108]
Quadrants are described using ordinals –

for example, "1st galactic quadrant",[109]
"second galactic quadrant",[110] or "third
quadrant of the Milky Way".[111] Viewing
from the north galactic pole with 0° (zero
degrees) as the ray that runs starting from
the Sun and through the Galactic Center,
the quadrants are:
Galactic
Galactic
quadrant
longitude Reference
(ℓ)
1st 0° ≤ ℓ ≤ 90° [112]
2nd 90° ≤ ℓ ≤ 180° [110]
3rd 180° ≤ ℓ ≤ 270° [111]
4th 270° ≤ ℓ ≤ 360° [109]
(360° ≅ 0°)
with the galactic longitude (ℓ) increasing in

the counter-clockwise direction (positive
rotation) as viewed from north of the
Galactic Center (a view-point several
hundred thousand light-years distant from
Earth in the direction of the constellation
Coma Berenices); if viewed from south of
the Galactic Center (a view-point similarly
distant in the constellation Sculptor), ℓ
would increase in the clockwise direction
(negative rotation).
Size and mass
The structure of the Milky Way is thought to be similar to this galaxy (UGC 12158 imaged by Hubble)
Size
A size comparison of the six largest galaxies of the Local Group, together with the Milky Way
The Milky Way is one of the two largest

galaxies in the Local Group (the other
being the Andromeda Galaxy), although
the size for its galactic disc and how much
it defines the isophotal diameter is not well
understood.[113] It is estimated that the
significant bulk of stars in the galaxy lies
within the 26 kiloparsecs (80,000 light-
years) diameter, and that the number of
stars beyond the outermost disc
dramatically reduces to a very low number,
with respect to an extrapolation of the
exponential disk with the scale length of
the inner disc.[114][113]
There are several methods being used in

astronomy in defining the size of a galaxy,
and each of them can yield different
results with respect to one another. The
most commonly employed method is the
D25 standard – the isophote where the
photometric brightness of a galaxy in the
B-band (445 nm wavelength of light, in the
blue part of the visible spectrum) reaches
25 mag/arcsec2.[115] An estimate from
1997 by Goodwin and others compared
the distribution of Cepheid variable stars in
17 other spiral galaxies to the ones in the
Milky Way, and modelling the relationship
to their surface brightnesses. This gave an
isophotal diameter for the Milky Way at
26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,590
light-years), by assuming that the galactic
disc is well represented by an exponential
disc and adopting a central surface
brightness of the galaxy (µ0) of 22.1 ± 0.3
B-mag/arcsec−2 and a disk scale length
(h) of 5.0 ± 0.5 kpc
(16,000 ± 1,600 ly).[116][8][117] This is
significantly smaller than the Andromeda
Galaxy's isophotal diameter, and slightly
below the mean isophotal sizes of the
galaxies being at 28.3 kpc (92,000 ly).[8]
The paper concludes that the Milky Way
and Andromeda Galaxy were not overly
large spiral galaxies and as well as one of
the largest known (if the former not being
the largest) as previously widely believed,
but rather average ordinary spiral
galaxies.[118] To compare the relative
physical scale of the Milky Way, if the Solar
System out to Neptune were the size of a
US quarter (24.3 mm (0.955 in)), the Milky
Way would be approximately at least the
greatest north–south line of the
contiguous United States.[119] An even
older study from 1978 gave a lower
diameter for Milky Way about 23 kpc
(75,000 ly).[8]
A 2015 paper discovered that there is a

ring-like filament of stars called
Triangulum–Andromeda Ring (TriAnd Ring)
rippling above and below the relatively flat
galactic plane, which alongside
Monoceros Ring were both suggested to
be primarily the result of disk oscillations
and wrapping around the Milky Way, at a
diameter of at least 50 kpc
(160,000 ly),[120] which may be part of the
Milky Way's outer disk itself, hence making
the stellar disk larger by increasing to this
size.[121] However, a more recent 2018
paper later somewhat ruled out this
hypothesis, and supported a conclusion
that the Monoceros Ring, A13 and TriAnd
Ring were stellar overdensities rather
kicked out from the main stellar disk, with
the velocity dispersion of the RR Lyrae
stars found to be higher and consistent
with halo membership.[122] Another 2018
study revealed the very probable presence
of disk stars at 26–31.5 kpc (84,800–
103,000 ly) from the Galactic Center or
perhaps even farther, significantly beyond
approximately 13–20 kpc (40,000–
70,000 ly), in which it was once believed to
be the abrupt drop-off of the stellar
density of the disk, meaning that few or no
stars were expected to be above this limit,
save for stars that belong to the old
population of the galactic halo.[113][123][124]
A 2020 study predicted the edge of the

Milky Way's dark matter halo being around
292 ± 61 kpc (952,000 ± 199,000 ly), which
translates to a diameter of 584 ± 122 kpc
(1.905 ± 0.3979 Mly).[28][29] The Milky
Way's stellar disk is also estimated to be
approximately up to 1.35 kpc (4,000 ly)
thick.[125][126]
A schematic profile of the Milky Way.
Abbreviations: GNP/GSP: Galactic North and South Poles
Mass
The Milky Way is approximately 890 billion

to 1.54 trillion times the mass of the Sun in
total (8.9 × 1011 to 1.54 × 1012 solar
masses),[39][40][127] although stars and
planets make up only a small part of this.
Estimates of the mass of the Milky Way
vary, depending upon the method and data
used. The low end of the estimate range is
5.8 × 1011 solar masses (M☉), somewhat
less than that of the Andromeda
Galaxy.[128][129][130] Measurements using
the Very Long Baseline Array in 2009 found
velocities as large as 254 km/s
(570,000 mph) for stars at the outer edge
of the Milky Way.[131] Because 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) of
its center.[132] In 2010, a measurement of
the radial velocity of halo stars found that
the mass enclosed within 80 kiloparsecs is
7 × 1011 M☉.[133] According to a study
published in 2014, the mass of the entire
Milky Way is estimated to be
8.5 × 1011 M☉,[134] but this is only half the
mass of the Andromeda Galaxy.[134] A
recent 2019 mass estimate for the Milky
Way is 1.29 × 1012 M☉.[135]
Much of the mass of the Milky Way seems

to be dark matter, an unknown and
invisible form of matter that interacts
gravitationally with ordinary matter. A dark
matter halo is conjectured to spread out
relatively uniformly to a distance beyond
one hundred kiloparsecs (kpc) from the
Galactic Center. Mathematical models of
the Milky Way suggest that the mass of
dark matter is 1–1.5 × 1012 M☉.[136][137][138]
2013 and 2014 studies indicate a range in
mass, as large as 4.5 × 1012 M☉[139] and as
small as 8 × 1011 M☉.[140] By comparison,
the total mass of all the stars in the Milky
Way is estimated to be between
4.6 × 1010 M☉[141] and 6.43 × 1010 M☉.[136]
In addition to the stars, there is also
interstellar gas, comprising 90% hydrogen
and 10% helium by mass,[142] with two
thirds of the hydrogen found in the atomic
form and the remaining one-third as
molecular hydrogen.[143] The mass of the
Milky Way's interstellar gas is equal to
between 10%[143] and 15%[142] of the total
mass of its stars. Interstellar dust
accounts for an additional 1% of the total
mass of the gas.[142]
In March 2019, astronomers reported that

the virial mass of the Milky Way Galaxy is
1.54 trillion solar masses within a radius
of about 39.5 kpc (130,000 ly), over twice
as much as was determined in earlier
studies, suggesting that about 90% of the
mass of the galaxy is dark matter.[39][40]
Contents
360-degree panorama view of the Milky Way (an assembled mosaic of photographs) by ESO, the galactic centre is in the
middle of the view, with galactic north up
360-degree rendering of the Milky Way using Gaia EDR3 data showing interstellar gas, dust backlit by stars (main patches
labeled in black; white labels are main bright patches of stars). Left hemisphere is facing the galactic center, right
hemisphere is facing the galactic anticenter.
The Milky Way contains between 100 and

400 billion stars[10][11] and at least that
many planets.[144] An exact figure would
depend on counting the number of very-
low-mass stars, which are difficult 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.[145] The Milky Way may
contain ten billion white dwarfs, a billion
neutron stars, and a hundred million stellar
black holes.[f][148][149] 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,[150] whereas the
thickness of the gas layer ranges from
hundreds of light-years for the colder gas
to thousands of light-years for warmer
gas.[151][152]
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 Milky Way. For reasons that are not
understood, beyond a radius of roughly
40,000 light years (13 kpc) from the center,
the number of stars per cubic parsec
drops much faster with radius.[114]
Surrounding the galactic disk is a spherical
galactic halo of stars and globular clusters
that extends farther outward, but is limited
in size by the orbits of two Milky Way
satellites, the Large and Small Magellanic
Clouds, whose closest approach to the
Galactic Center is about 180,000 ly
(55 kpc).[153] 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 around
−20.9.[154][155][g]
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,[34][156] and microlensing
measurements indicate that there are
more rogue planets not bound to host
stars than there are stars.[157][158] The
Milky Way 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 by the
Kepler space observatory.[35] A different
January 2013 analysis of Kepler data
estimated that at least 17 billion Earth-
sized exoplanets reside in the Milky
Way.[159] 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 dwarfs within the Milky
Way.[160][161][162] 11 billion of these
estimated planets may be orbiting Sun-like
stars.[163] The nearest exoplanet may be
4.2 light-years away, orbiting the red dwarf
Proxima Centauri, according to a 2016
study.[164] Such Earth-sized planets may be
more numerous than gas giants,[34] though
harder to detect at great distances given
their small size. Besides exoplanets,
"exocomets", comets beyond the Solar
System, have also been detected and may
be common in the Milky Way.[165] More
recently, in November 2020, over 300
million habitable exoplanets are estimated
to exist in the Milky Way Galaxy.[166]
Structure
Overview of different elements of the overall structure of the Milky Way.
Supermassive black hole Bright X-ray flares from

Sagittarius A* imaged by the Event Sagittarius A* (inset) in the center
Horizon Telescope in radio waves. of the Milky Way, as detected by
The central dark spot is the black the Chandra X-ray Observatory.[167]
hole's shadow, which is larger than
the event horizon.
0:27
Artist's impression of how the Milky Way would look from different vantage points – from edge-on lines-of-sight, the peanut-
shell-shaped structure, not to be confused with the galaxy's central bulge, is evident; viewed from above, the central narrow
bar that is responsible for this structure appears clearly, as would many spiral arms and their associated dust clouds
The Milky Way consists of a bar-shaped

core region surrounded by a warped disk
of gas, dust and stars.[168][169] The mass
distribution within the Milky Way closely
resembles the type Sbc in the Hubble
classification, which represents spiral
galaxies with relatively loosely wound
arms.[5] Astronomers first began to
conjecture that the Milky Way is a barred
spiral galaxy, rather than an ordinary spiral
galaxy, in the 1960s.[170][171][172] These
conjectures were confirmed by the Spitzer
Space Telescope observations in 2005
that showed the Milky Way's central bar to
be larger than previously thought.[173]
Galactic Center
The Sun is 25,000–28,000 ly (7.7–8.6 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.[174][96][36][175][176][177] In the inner few
kiloparsecs (around 10,000 light-years
radius) is a dense concentration of mostly
old stars in a roughly spheroidal shape
called the bulge.[178] It has been proposed
that the Milky Way lacks a bulge due to a
collision and merger between previous
galaxies, and that instead it only has a
pseudobulge formed by its central bar.[179]
However, confusion in the literature
between the (peanut shell)-shaped
structure created by instabilities in the bar,
versus a possible bulge with an expected
half-light radius of 0.5 kpc, abounds.[180]
The Galactic Center is marked by an
intense radio source named Sagittarius A*
(pronounced Sagittarius A-star). The
motion of material around the center
indicates that Sagittarius A* harbors a
massive, compact object.[181] This
concentration of mass is best explained
as a supermassive black hole[h][174][182]
(SMBH) with an estimated mass of 4.1–
4.5 million times the mass of the Sun.[182]
The rate of accretion of the SMBH is
consistent with an inactive galactic
nucleus, being estimated at 1 × 10−5 M☉
per year.[183] Observations indicate that
there are SMBHs located near the center
of most normal galaxies.[184][185]
The nature of the Milky Way's bar is
actively debated, with estimates for its
half-length and orientation spanning from
1 to 5 kpc (3,000–16,000 ly) and 10–
50 degrees relative to the line of sight from
Earth to the Galactic Center.[176][177][186]
Certain authors advocate that the Milky
Way features two distinct bars, one
nestled within the other.[187] However,
RR Lyrae-type stars do not trace a
prominent Galactic bar.[177][188][189] The bar
may be surrounded by a ring called the
"5 kpc ring" that contains a large fraction
of the molecular hydrogen present in the
Milky Way, as well as most of the Milky
Way's star formation activity. Viewed from
the Andromeda Galaxy, it would be the
brightest feature of the Milky Way.[190] X-
ray emission from the core is aligned with
the massive stars surrounding the central
bar[183] and the Galactic ridge.[191]
Gamma rays and x-rays
Since 1970, various gamma-ray detection

missions have discovered 511-keV gamma
rays coming from the general direction of
the Galactic Center. These gamma rays
are produced by positrons (antielectrons)
annihilating with electrons. In 2008 it was
found that the distribution of the sources
of the gamma rays resembles the
distribution of low-mass X-ray binaries,
seeming to indicate that these X-ray
binaries are sending positrons (and
electrons) into interstellar space where
they slow down and annihilate.[192][193][194]
The observations were both made by
NASA and ESA's satellites. In 1970 gamma
ray detectors found that the emitting
region was about 10,000 light-years
across with a luminosity of about 10,000
suns.[193]
Illustration of the two gigantic X-ray/gamma-ray bubbles (blue-violet) of the Milky Way (center)
In 2010, two gigantic spherical bubbles of

high energy gamma-emission were
detected to the north and the south of the
Milky Way core, using data from the Fermi
Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The
diameter of each of the bubbles is about
25,000 light-years (7.7 kpc) (or about 1/4
of the galaxy's estimated diameter); they
stretch up to Grus and to Virgo on the
night-sky of the southern
hemisphere.[195][196] Subsequently,
observations with the Parkes Telescope at
radio frequencies identified polarized
emission that is associated with the Fermi
bubbles. These observations are best
interpreted as a magnetized outflow driven
by star formation in the central 640 ly
(200 pc) of the Milky Way.[197]
Later, on January 5, 2015, NASA reported

observing an X-ray flare 400 times brighter
than usual, a record-breaker, from
Sagittarius A*. The unusual event may
have been caused by the breaking apart of
an asteroid falling into the black hole or by
the entanglement of magnetic field lines
within gas flowing into Sagittarius A*.[167]
Spiral arms
Outside the gravitational influence of the
Galactic bar, the structure of the
interstellar medium and stars in the disk of
the Milky Way is organized into four spiral
arms.[198] 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[199][200] and
molecular clouds.[201]
The Milky Way's spiral structure is

uncertain, and there is currently no
consensus on the nature of the Milky
Way's arms.[202] Perfect logarithmic spiral
patterns only crudely describe features
near the Sun,[200][203] because galaxies
commonly have arms that branch, merge,
twist unexpectedly, and feature a degree
of irregularity.[177][203][204] The possible
scenario of the Sun within a spur / Local
arm[200] emphasizes that point and
indicates that such features are probably
not unique, and exist elsewhere in the
Milky Way.[203] Estimates of the pitch angle
of the arms range from about 7° to
25°.[150][205] There are thought to be four
spiral arms that all start near the Milky
Way Galaxy's center.[206] These are named
as follows, with the positions of the arms
shown in the image below:
Observed (normal lines) and extrapolated (dotted lines) structure of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, viewed from north of
the galaxy – the galaxy rotates clockwise in this view. The gray lines radiating from the Sun's position (upper center) list the
three-letter abbreviations of the corresponding constellations
Color Arm(s)
t urquoise Near 3 kpc Arm and Perseus Arm
blue Norma and Out er arm (Along wit h ext ension discovered in 2004[207])
green Scut um–Cent aurus Arm
red Carina–Sagit t arius Arm
There are at least two smaller arms or spurs, including:
orange Orion–Cygnus Arm (which cont ains t he Sun and Solar Syst em)
Spitzer reveals what cannot be seen in visible light:
cooler stars (blue), heated dust (reddish hue), and
Sgr A* as bright white spot in the middle.
Artist's conception of the spiral structure of the Milky

Way with two major stellar arms and a bar.[202]
Two spiral arms, the Scutum–Centaurus
arm and the Carina–Sagittarius arm, have
tangent points inside the Sun's orbit about
the center of the Milky Way. If these arms
contain an overdensity of stars compared
to the average density of stars in the
Galactic disk, it would be detectable by
counting the stars near the tangent point.
Two surveys of near-infrared light, which is
sensitive primarily to red giants 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
giants than would be expected in the
absence of a spiral arm.[205][208] This
observation suggests 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.[202] 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.[209][210][211] Thus, the Milky Way
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.[211]
Clusters detected by WISE used to trace the Milky Way's spiral arms.
The Near 3 kpc Arm (also called the

Expanding 3 kpc Arm or simply the 3 kpc
Arm) was discovered in the 1950s by
astronomer van Woerden and
collaborators through 21 centimeter radio
measurements of HI (atomic
hydrogen).[212][213] It was found to be
expanding away from the central bulge 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 (Center for
Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian). It
is located in the first galactic quadrant at a
distance of 3 kpc (about 10,000 ly) from
the Galactic Center.[213][214]
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.[215]
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,[216] and the two patterns
would be connected by the Cygnus
arm.[217]
The long filamentary molecular cloud dubbed "Nessie" probably forms a dense "spine" of the Scutum–Centarus Arm
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. However, several
members of the scientific community
recently restated their position affirming
the Monoceros structure is nothing more
than an over-density produced by the
flared and warped thick disk of the Milky
Way.[218] The structure of the Milky Way's
disk is warped along an "S" curve.[219]
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.[220] However, a few globular
clusters have been found farther, such as
PAL 4 and AM 1 at more than
200,000 light-years from the Galactic
Center. About 40% of the Milky Way's
clusters are on retrograde orbits, which
means they move in the opposite direction
from the Milky Way rotation.[221] The
globular clusters can follow rosette orbits
about the Milky Way, in contrast to the
elliptical orbit of a planet around a
star.[222]
Although the disk contains dust that

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
cool gas to collapse into stars.[105] Open
clusters are also located primarily in the
disk.[223]
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 farther than
previously thought,[224] the possibility of
the disk of the Milky Way extending farther
is apparent, and this is supported by
evidence from the discovery of the Outer
Arm extension of the Cygnus Arm[207][225]
and of a similar extension of the Scutum–
Centaurus Arm.[226] 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.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey of the

northern sky shows 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 Milky Way.
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.[227]
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 farther 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 Milky Way
itself.[228][229][230] The temperature of this
halo gas is between 1 and 2.5 million K
(1.8 and 4.5 million °F).[231]
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.[232] If the
finding that the mass of the halo is
comparable to the mass of the Milky Way
is confirmed, it could be the identity of the
missing baryons around the Milky Way.[232]
Galactic rotation
Galaxy rotation curve for the Milky Way – vertical axis is speed of rotation about the galactic center; horizontal axis is
distance from the galactic center in kpcs; the sun is marked with a yellow ball; the observed curve of speed of rotation is
blue; the predicted curve based upon stellar mass and gas in the Milky Way is red; scatter in observations roughly
indicated by gray bars, the difference is due to dark matter[41][233][234]
The stars and gas in the Milky Way 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 Milky Way 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 ± 10 km/s
(470,000 ± 22,000 mph).[235] Hence the
orbital period of the typical star is directly
proportional only to the length of the path
traveled. This is unlike the situation within
the Solar System, where two-body
gravitational dynamics dominate, and
different orbits have significantly different
velocities associated with them. The
rotation curve (shown in the figure)
describes this rotation. Toward the center
of the Milky Way the orbit speeds are too
low, whereas beyond 7 kpcs the speeds
are too high to match what would be
expected from the universal law of
gravitation.
If the Milky Way contained only the mass
observed in stars, gas, and other baryonic
(ordinary) matter, the rotational speed
would decrease with distance from the
center. However, the observed curve is
relatively flat, indicating that there is
additional mass that cannot be detected
directly with electromagnetic radiation.
This inconsistency is attributed to dark
matter.[41] The rotation curve of the Milky
Way agrees with the universal rotation
curve of spiral galaxies, the best evidence
for the existence of dark matter in
galaxies. Alternatively, a minority of
astronomers propose that a modification
of the law of gravity may explain the
observed rotation curve.[236]
Formation
History
The Milky Way began as one or several

small overdensities in the mass
distribution in the Universe shortly after the
Big Bang 13.61 billion years
ago.[237][238][239] Some of these
overdensities were the seeds of globular
clusters in which the oldest remaining
stars in what is now the Milky Way formed.
Nearly half the matter in the Milky Way
may have come from other distant
galaxies.[237] Nonetheless, these stars and
clusters now comprise the stellar halo of
the Milky Way. 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.[240][241]
Since the first stars began to form, the
Milky Way has grown through both galaxy
mergers (particularly early in the Milky
Way's growth) and accretion of gas
directly from the Galactic halo.[241] The
Milky Way is currently accreting material
from several small galaxies, including two
of its largest 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.[242][243] Cosmological
simulations indicate that, 11 billion years
ago, it merged with a particularly large
galaxy that has been labeled the
Kraken.[244][245] 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.[246][247]
According to recent studies, the Milky Way

as well as the Andromeda Galaxy 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 the Milky Way and the
Andromeda Galaxy.[248] In fact,
measurements of other galaxies similar to
the Milky Way 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.[249]
Age and cosmological history
Comparison of the night sky with the night sky of a hypothetical planet within the Milky Way 10 billion years ago, at an age
of about 3.6 billion years and 5 billion years before the Sun formed.[250]
Globular clusters are among the oldest
objects in the Milky Way, which thus set a
lower limit on the age of the Milky Way.
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[251]
and 13.8 ± 4 billion years for BD +17°
3248.[252] Once a white dwarf 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. 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.[253]
In November 2018, astronomers reported

the discovery of one of the oldest stars in
the universe. About 13.5 billion-years-old,
2MASS J18082002-5104378 B is a tiny
ultra metal-poor (UMP) star made almost
entirely of materials released from the Big
Bang, and is possibly one of the first stars.
The discovery of the star in the Milky Way
Galaxy suggests that the galaxy may be at
least 3 billion years older than previously
thought.[254][255][256]
Several individual stars have been found in

the Milky Way's halo with measured ages
very close to the 13.80-billion-year age of
the Universe. In 2007, a star in the galactic
halo, HE 1523-0901, was estimated to be
about 13.2 billion years old. 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.[257] This estimate
was made 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.[257] Another star,
HD 140283, is 14.5 ± 0.7 billion years
old.[42][258]
According to observations utilizing
adaptive optics to correct for Earth's
atmospheric distortion, stars in the
galaxy's bulge date to about 12.8 billion
years old.[259]
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.[260] Recent analysis of the
chemical signatures of thousands of stars
suggests that stellar formation might have
dropped by an order of magnitude at the
time of disk formation, 10 to 8 billion years
ago, when interstellar gas was too hot to
form new stars at the same rate as
before.[261]
The satellite galaxies surrounding the

Milky Way are not randomly distributed but
seem to be the result of a breakup of
some larger system producing a ring
structure 500,000 light-years in diameter
and 50,000 light-years wide.[262] Close
encounters between galaxies, like that
expected in 4 billion years with the
Andromeda Galaxy rips off huge tails of
gas, which, over time can coalesce to form
dwarf galaxies in a ring at an arbitrary
angle to the main disc.[263]
Intergalactic neighbourhood
Diagram of the galaxies in the Local

Group relative to the Milky Way
The position of the Local Group within

the Laniakea Supercluster
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,
surrounded by a Local Void, itself being
part of the Local Sheet[264] and in turn the
Virgo Supercluster. Surrounding the Virgo
Supercluster are a number of voids, devoid
of many galaxies, the Microscopium Void
to the "north", the Sculptor Void to the
"left", the Boötes Void to the "right" and the
Canes-Major Void to the "south". These
voids change shape over time, creating
filamentous structures of galaxies. The
Virgo Supercluster, for instance, is being
drawn towards the Great Attractor,[265]
which in turn forms part of a greater
structure, called Laniakea.[266]
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
32,200 light-years.[267] 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.[268]
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 dwarf galaxies of the
Milky Way are only 500 light-years in
diameter. These include Carina Dwarf,
Draco Dwarf, and Leo II Dwarf. There may
still be undetected dwarf galaxies that are
dynamically bound to the Milky Way, which
is supported by the detection of nine new
satellites of the Milky Way in a relatively
small patch of the night sky in 2015.[269]
There are also some dwarf galaxies that
have already been absorbed by the Milky
Way, such as the progenitor of Omega
Centauri.[270]
In 2005[271] with further confirmation in

2012[272] researchers reported that most
satellite galaxies of the Milky Way lie in a
very large disk and orbit in the same
direction. This came as a surprise:
according to standard cosmology, the
satellite galaxies should form in dark
matter halos, and they should be widely
distributed and moving in random
directions. This discrepancy is still not
explained.[273]
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 orbit the Milky Way, 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.[274]
Current measurements suggest the
Andromeda Galaxy is approaching us at
100 to 140 km/s (220,000 to
310,000 mph). In 4.3 billion years, there
may be an Andromeda–Milky Way
collision, depending on the importance of
unknown lateral components to the
galaxies' relative motion. If they collide, the
chance of individual stars colliding with
each other is extremely low,[275] but
instead the two galaxies will merge to
form a single elliptical galaxy or perhaps a
large disk galaxy[276] over the course of
about six billion years.[277]
Velocity
Although special relativity states that there
is no "preferred" inertial frame of reference
in space with which to compare the Milky
Way, the Milky Way does have a velocity
with respect to cosmological frames of
reference.
One such frame of reference is the Hubble

flow, the apparent motions of galaxy
clusters due to the expansion of space.
Individual galaxies, 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/s
(1,400,000 mph) with respect to this local
co-moving frame of reference.[278][279] The
Milky Way is moving in the general
direction of the Great Attractor and other
galaxy clusters, including the Shapley
Supercluster, behind it.[280] 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
(2,160,000 mph) 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.[281]
Another reference frame is provided by the

cosmic microwave background (CMB), in
which the CMB temperature is least
distorted by Doppler shift (zero dipole
moment). The Milky Way is moving at
552 ± 6 km/s (1,235,000 ± 13,000 mph)[17]
with respect to this frame, 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.[17]
See also
solar
system
portal
outer
space
portal
astronomy
portal
Baade's Window
Galactic astronomy
Galactic Center GeV excess
Oort constants
Notes
a. The distance towards its center (Sagittarius
A*).
b. This is the diameter measured using the
D25 standard. It has been recently
suggested that there is a presence of disk
stars beyond this diameter, although it is
not clear how much of this influences the
surface brightness profile.[9]
c. Some authors use the term Milky Way to
refer exclusively to the band of light that
the galaxy forms in the night sky, while the
galaxy receives the full name Milky Way
Galaxy. See for example Lausten et al.,[19]
Pasachoff,[20] Jones,[21] van der Kruit,[22]
and Hodge et al.[23]
d. See also Bortle Dark-Sky Scale.
e. The bright center of the galaxy is located in
the constellation Sagittarius. From
Sagittarius, the hazy band of white light
appears to pass westward through the
constellations of Scorpius, Ara, Norma,
Triangulum Australe, Circinus, Centaurus,
Musca, Crux, Carina, Vela, Puppis, Canis
Major, Monoceros, Orion and Gemini,
Taurus, to the galactic anticenter in Auriga.
From there, it passes through Perseus,
Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Cepheus and
Lacerta, Cygnus, Vulpecula, Sagitta, Aquila,
Ophiuchus, Scutum, and back to
Sagittarius.
f. These estimates are very uncertain, as
most non-star objects are difficult to detect;
for example, black hole estimates range
from ten million to one billion.[146][147]
g. Karachentsev et al. give a blue absolute
magnitude of −20.8. Combined with a color
index of 0.55 estimated here (http://adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.440..405
M) , an absolute visual magnitude of
−21.35 (−20.8 − 0.55 = −21.35) is obtained.
Note that determining the absolute
magnitude of the Milky Way is very difficult,
because Earth is inside it.
h. For a photo see: "Sagittarius A*: Milky Way
monster stars in cosmic reality show" (htt
p://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/020
3long/) . Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard &
Smithsonian. January 6, 2003. Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/2008031706180
9/http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/
0203long/) from the original on March 17,
2008. Retrieved May 20, 2012.
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60411091135/https://archive.org/stream/
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Anaxagoras, Democritus, and their schools
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stars ... shaded by the earth from the sun's
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69. Aristotle; Ross, W. D. (William David);
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74. Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius (Venice,
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English translation: Galileo Galilei with

Edward Stafford Carlos, trans., The Sidereal
Messenger (London: Rivingtons, 1880),
pages 42 and 43. (https://archive.org/strea
m/siderealmessenge80gali#page/42/mod
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76. Thomas Wright, An Original Theory or New
Hypothesis of the Universe … (London,
England: H. Chapelle, 1750).
On page 57 (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=80VZAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA
57) Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20161120195004/https://books.
google.com/books?id=80VZAAAAcAA
J&pg=PA57) November 20, 2016, at
the Wayback Machine, Wright stated
that despite their mutual gravitational
attraction, the stars in the
constellations don't collide because
they are in orbit, so centrifugal force
keeps them separated: " … centrifugal
force, which not only preserves them
in their orbits, but prevents them from
rushing all together, by the common
universal law of gravity, … "
web/20161120194825/https://books.
the Wayback Machine, Wright stated
that the form of the Milky Way is a
ring: " … the stars are not infinitely
dispersed and distributed in a
promiscuous manner throughout all
the mundane space, without order or
design, … this phænomenon [is] no
other than a certain effect arising from
the observer's situation, … To a
spectator placed in an indefinite space,
… it [i.e. the Milky Way (Via Lactea)] [is]
a vast ring of stars … "
web/20161120174208/https://books.
the Wayback Machine, Wright
speculated that the central body of the
Milky Way, around which the rest of the
galaxy revolves, might not be visible to
us: " ... the central body A, being
supposed as incognitum [i.e. an
unknown], without [i.e. outside of] the
finite view; ... "
web/20161120194830/https://books.
the Wayback Machine, Wright called
the Milky Way the Vortex Magnus (the
great whirlpool) and estimated its
diameter to be 8.64×1012 miles
(13.9×1012 km).
web/20161120172753/https://books.
the Wayback Machine, Wright
speculated that there are a vast
number of inhabited planets in the
galaxy: " … ; therefore we may justly
suppose, that so many radiant bodies
[i.e. stars] were not created barely to
enlighten an infinite void, but to …
display an infinite shapeless universe,
crowded with myriads of glorious
worlds, all variously revolving round
them; and … with an inconceivable
variety of beings and states, animate …
"
77. Immanuel Kant, Allgemeine
Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels
… (https://books.google.com/books?id=nC
caAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP9) Archived (https://
ps://books.google.com/books?id=nCcaAQ
AAMAAJ&pg=PP9) November 20, 2016, at
the Wayback Machine [Universal Natural
History and Theory of Heaven … ],
(Koenigsberg and Leipzig, (Germany):
Johann Friederich Petersen, 1755).
On
pages 2–3, Kant acknowledged his debt to
Thomas Wright: "Dem Herrn Wright von
Durham, einen Engeländer, war es
vorbehalten, einen glücklichen Schritt zu
einer Bemerkung zu thun, welche von ihm
selber zu keiner gar zu tüchtigen Absicht
gebraucht zu seyn scheinet, und deren
nützliche Anwendung er nicht genugsam
beobachtet hat. Er betrachtete die Fixsterne
nicht als ein ungeordnetes und ohne
Absicht zerstreutes Gewimmel, sondern er
fand eine systematische Verfassung im
Ganzen, und eine allgemeine Beziehung
dieser Gestirne gegen einen Hauptplan der
Raume, die sie einnehmen." (To Mr. Wright
of Durham, an Englishman, it was reserved
to take a happy step towards an
observation, which seemed, to him and to
no one else, to be needed for a clever idea,
the exploitation of which he hasn't studied
sufficiently. He regarded the fixed stars not
as a disorganized swarm that was
scattered without a design; rather, he found
a systematic shape in the whole, and a
general relation between these stars and
the principal plane of the space that they
occupy.)
78. Kant (1755), pages xxxiii–xxxvi of the
Preface (Vorrede): (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=nCcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP4
9) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/
20161120231151/https://books.google.co
m/books?id=nCcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP49)
November 20, 2016, at the Wayback
Machine "Ich betrachtete die Art neblichter
Sterne, deren Herr von Maupertuis in der
Abhandlung von der Figur der Gestirne
gedenket, und die die Figur von mehr oder
weniger offenen Ellipsen vorstellen, und
versicherte mich leicht, daß sie nichts
anders als eine Häufung vieler Fixsterne
seyn können. Die jederzeit abgemessene
Rundung dieser Figuren belehrte mich, daß
hier ein unbegreiflich zahlreiches
Sternenheer, und zwar um einen
gemeinschaftlichen Mittelpunkt, müste
geordnet seyn, weil sonst ihre freye
Stellungen gegen einander, wohl irreguläre
Gestalten, aber nicht abgemessene Figuren
vorstellen würden. Ich sahe auch ein: daß
sie in dem System, darinn sie sich vereinigt
befinden, vornemlich auf eine Fläche
beschränkt seyn müßten, weil sie nicht
zirkelrunde, sondern elliptische Figuren
abbilden, und daß sie wegen ihres blassen
Lichts unbegreiflich weit von uns abstehen."
(I considered the type of nebulous stars,
which Mr. de Maupertuis considered in his
treatise on the shape of stars, and which
present the figures of more or less open
ellipses, and I readily assured myself, that
they could be nothing else than a cluster of
fixed stars. That these figures always
measured round informed me that here an
inconceivably numerous host of stars,
[which were clustered] around a common
center, must be orderly, because otherwise
their free positions among each other
would probably present irregular forms, not
measurable figures. I also realized: that in
the system in which they find themselves
bound, they must be restricted primarily to
a plane, because they display not circular,
but elliptical figures, and that on account of
their faint light, they are located
inconceivably far from us.)
79. Evans, J. C. (November 24, 1998). "Our
Galaxy" (http://physics.gmu.edu/~jevans/a
str103/CourseNotes/ECText/ch20_txt.ht
m) . George Mason University. Archived (htt
ps://archive.today/20120630/http://physic
s.gmu.edu/~jevans/astr103/CourseNotes/
ECText/ch20_txt.htm) from the original on
June 30, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
80. The term Weltinsel (island universe)
appears nowhere in Kant's book of 1755.
The term first appeared in 1850, in the third
volume of von Humboldt's Kosmos:
Alexander von Humboldt, Kosmos, vol. 3
(Stuttgart & Tübingen, (Germany): J.G.
Cotta, 1850), pp. 187, 189. From p. 187: (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=Su0iAQA
AMAAJ&pg=PA187) Archived (https://we
s://books.google.com/books?id=Su0iAQA
AMAAJ&pg=PA187) November 20, 2016,
at the Wayback Machine "Thomas Wright
von Durham, Kant, Lambert und zuerst auch
William Herschel waren geneigt die Gestalt
der Milchstraße und die scheinbare
Anhäufung der Sterne in derselben als eine
Folge der abgeplatteten Gestalt und
ungleichen Dimensionen der Weltinsel
(Sternschict) zu betrachten, in welche unser
Sonnensystem eingeschlossen ist."
(Thomas Wright of Durham, Kant, Lambert
and first of all also William Herschel were
inclined to regard the shape of the Milky
Way and the apparent clustering of stars in
it as a consequence of the oblate shape
and unequal dimensions of the world island
(star stratum), in which our solar system is
included.)
In the English translation – Alexander von

Humboldt with E.C. Otté, trans., Cosmos ...
(New York City: Harper & Brothers, 1897),
vols. 3–5. see p. 147 (http://babel.hathitrus
t.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101057350447;view=
1up;seq=157) Archived (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20181106181344/https://babel.
hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.321010573504
47;view=1up;seq=157) November 6, 2018,
at the Wayback Machine.
81. William Herschel (1785) "On the
Construction of the Heavens," Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of
London, 75 : 213–266. Herschel's diagram
of the Milky Way appears immediately after
the article's last page. See:
Google Books (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=IU9FAAAAcAAJ&pg=P
A213) Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20161120170623/https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=IU9FAAAAcA
AJ&pg=PA213) November 20, 2016,
at the Wayback Machine
The Royal Society of London (http://rst
l.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/7
5/213.full.pdf+html) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/2016040613
2029/http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.
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April 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
82. Abbey, Lenny. "The Earl of Rosse and the
Leviathan of Parsontown" (https://web.arch
ive.org/web/20130519124426/http://labbe
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Retrieved January 4, 2007.
83. See:
Rosse revealed the spiral structure of
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) at the 1845
meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science. Rosse's
illustration of M51 was reproduced in
J.P. Nichol's book of 1846.
Rosse, Earl of (1846). "On the nebula
25 Herschel, or 61 [should read: 51]
of Messier's catalogue" (https://bab
el.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.3210
1049356890&view=1up&seq=402) .
Report of the Fifteenth Meeting of
the British Association for the
Advancement of Science; Held at
Cambridge in June 1845 § Notices
and Abstracts of Miscellaneous
Communications to the Sections.
Report of the ... Meeting of the
British Association for the
Advancement of Science (1833): 4.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20210310235347/https://babel.
hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.321010
49356890&view=1up&seq=402)
Retrieved February 17, 2020.
Nichol, John Pringle (1846).
Thoughts on Some Important Points
Relating to the System of the World
(https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i
d=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft9k360
k8b&view=1up&seq=65) .
Edinburgh, Scotland: William Tait.
p. 23. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20210308094837/https://
babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.a
rk%3A%2F13960%2Ft9k360k8b&vie
w=1up&seq=65) from the original
on March 8, 2021. Retrieved
February 17, 2020. Rosse's
illustration of the Whirlpool Galaxy
appears on the plate that
immediately precedes p. 23.
South, James (1846). "Auszug aus
einem Berichte über Lord Rosse's
grosses Telescop, den Sir James
South in The Times, Nr. 18899, 1845
April 16 bekannt gemacht hat" (https://
babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000
055399548&view=1up&seq=279&siz
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Further reading
Dambeck, Thorsten Dambeck (March
2008). "Gaia's Mission to the Milky Way".
Sky & Telescope: 36–39.
Chiappini, Cristina (November–
December 2001). "The Formation and
Evolution of the Milky Way" (http://www.
astro.caltech.edu/~george/ay20/Chiapp
ini-MilkyWay.pdf) (PDF). American
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Milky Way Galaxy.
Wikiquote has quotations related to
Milky Way.
Milky Way – IRAS (infrared) survey (htt

p://www.sky-map.org/?ra=12.05937942
93245&de=-20.27239516216098&zoom
=0&show_grid=1&show_constellation_li
nes=1&show_constellation_boundaries=
1&show_const_names=0&show_galaxie
s=1&img_source=IRAS) – wikisky.org
Milky Way – H-Alpha survey (http://www.
sky-map.org/?ra=12.0593794293245&d
e=-20.27239516216098&zoom=0&show
_grid=1&show_constellation_lines=1&sh
ow_constellation_boundaries=1&show_
const_names=0&show_galaxies=1&img
_source=HALPHA) – wikisky.org
Multiwavelength Milky Way (https://asd.
gsfc.nasa.gov/archive/mwmw/mmw_sc
i.html) – Images and VRML models
(NASA)
Milky Way – Panorama (9 billion pixels)
(http://www.360pano.eu/show/?id=73
6) .
Milky Way (http://messier.seds.org/mor
e/mw.html) – SEDS Messier website
Milky Way (http://galaxymap.org/drupal/
node/127) – Infrared Images
Milky Way (https://www.sciencealert.co
m/feast-your-eyes-on-this-1-250-hour-ex
posure-of-the-milky-way) – Mosaic of
galactic plane (March 19, 2021)
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Discover the Milky Way Galaxy

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Discover the Milky Way Galaxy

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Milky Way

The Milky Way[c] is the galaxy that

The Galactic Center as seen from Earth's night

Observation data (J2000 epoch)

Right ascension 17h 45m 40.03599s[1]

Type Sb; Sbc; SB(rs)bc[5][6]

Mass 1.15 × 1012[7] M☉

Number of stars 100–500 billion ((1–

Thickness of thin 220–450 pc (718–

Thickness of thick 2.6 ± 0.5 kpc

Spiral pattern 220–360 Myr[15]

Bar pattern rotation 160–180 Myr[16]

Speed relative to 552.2 ± 5.5 km/s[17]

Escape velocity at 550 km/s[18]

Dark matter density +0.0024

M☉pc (0.35 −0.07

The Milky Way as a whole is moving at a

Etymology and mythology

The Origin of the Milky Way by Tintoretto (circa 1575–1580)

In the Babylonian epic poem Enūma Eliš,

In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son

Llys Dôn (literally "The Court of Dôn") is the

In western culture, the name "Milky Way" is

The Milky Way, or "milk circle", was just

A time-lapse video capturing the Milky Way arching over ALMA

The Milky Way is visible as a hazy band of

The Milky Way has a relatively low surface

As viewed from Earth, the visible region of

The galactic plane is inclined by about 60°

The Persian astronomer Al-Biruni (973–

Proof of the Milky Way consisting of many

The first attempt to describe the shape of

In 1845, Lord Rosse constructed a new

In 1904, studying the proper motions of

The controversy was conclusively settled

The ESA spacecraft Gaia provides

Sun's location and neighborhood

The Sun is near the inner rim of the Orion

There are about 208 stars brighter than

The apex of the Sun's way, or the solar

A galactic quadrant, or quadrant of the

Quadrants are described using ordinals –

2nd 90° ≤ ℓ ≤ 180° [110]

3rd 180° ≤ ℓ ≤ 270° [111]

4th 270° ≤ ℓ ≤ 360° [109]

with the galactic longitude (ℓ) increasing in

Size and mass

The Milky Way is one of the two largest

There are several methods being used in

A 2015 paper discovered that there is a

A 2020 study predicted the edge of the

Abbreviations: GNP/GSP: Galactic North and South Poles

The Milky Way is approximately 890 billion

Much of the mass of the Milky Way seems

In March 2019, astronomers reported that

The Milky Way contains between 100 and

The disk of stars in the Milky Way does not

Both gravitational microlensing and

Supermassive black hole Bright X-ray flares from

The Milky Way consists of a bar-shaped

The Sun is 25,000–28,000 ly (7.7–8.6 kpc)

Gamma rays and x-rays

Since 1970, various gamma-ray detection