Did you know that there are billions of galaxies in the universe and we are in one of them? This is the Milky Way, which is characterized by having four arms spiraling through a central bulge and a large galactic halo.
It was discovered in 1609 when Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope at the galaxy and discovered that it was composed of a large number of stars. After several centuries, many things were discovered, including very interesting curiosities. Therefore, Digital look they prepared a list of 10 of them. Check it out!
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1 – A black hole exists
The black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, is located at the barycenter of the Milky Way, around where the rest of the galaxy orbits. So far, scientists warn that the stars around it are not in any danger, it is because they do not feed on matter for a long time, except for some made up of gas and dust.
2 – Mysterious bubbles appeared
This discovery was made in 2010, when astronomers saw that the Milky Way was blowing out large bubbles of very hot gas and energetic particles. They extend in two directions: below and above the galactic plane. They are known as “Fermi bubbles”, a name given because they can only be observed with the Femi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
These bubbles are supported by winds that blow at three million kilometers per hour. We still owe you information on what they are. This has yet to be discovered, but scientists have pointed out that it may be related to the cycle of star formation and extinction near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.
3 – The diameter of the Milky Way reaches almost 2 million light years
Astrophysicist Alis Deasone and her colleagues performed a thorough analysis of galaxies near the Milky Way to determine just how big the Milky Way is. To do this, they used computer simulations and obtained results that suggest the average is 1.9 million light-years with an error of 0.4 million light-years.
You may be interested in the spiral disk of the galaxy. The fact is that it measures an average of 120 thousand light years. However, our galaxy goes further, and in the space behind the disk there are shining stars, another disk of gas and a lot of dark matter with invisible particles.
4 – Our galaxy has an “S” shaped warp.
A study published in Nature Astronomy has shown that the Milky Way is not quite as flat as previously believed. On the other hand, it actually has distorted edges, giving our galaxy an elongated S shape.
5 – It is not possible to see all the stars in the Milky Way
Our galaxy is estimated to have around 200 billion stars. Although our night sky is rich in constellations, we can only see 0.000003% of them with the naked eye.
6 – Clouds move away from the center of the galaxy
Recently, astronomers discovered that there are hundreds of hydrogen clouds that are leaving the center of the Milky Way and heading out into intergalactic space. They are moving at 1 million km/h in the same direction as the Fermi bubbles.
7 – There is fat and grease in the Milky Way
Did you know that there is a lot of grease between the stars in the galaxy? Yes, they are in the form of oily organic molecules and are known as aliphatic carbon compounds, produced in certain stars.
8 – The stars move here
An interesting fact is that some stars from other galaxies can “live” here. Scientists say they come from another galaxy, probably the Large Magellanic Cloud. The theory is that they may have interacted with a supermassive black hole and been “ejected” gravitationally at high speed, thus being captured by the Milky Way.
9 – The Milky Way can create billions more stars
Gas is very abundant in our galaxy. So much so that we have enough to make billions of new stars. You can see this by observing the huge number of blue stars on the outer edges of the spiral arms.
10 – Our galaxy is part of the Laniakea supercluster
The Laniakea supercluster is a group of 150,000 galaxies that includes our own. It spans 520 million light years. It has a central point of gravity to attract other galaxies, which is called the “Great Attractor” because it is responsible for directing them to this center of mass.
