Contains more than 100 billion stars Is one of the two largest among 40 galaxies in the Local Group Our Solar System is located a little more than half way from the galactic center to the edge of the galactic disk ID: 617392
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The Milky Way Galaxy
Contains more than 100 billion stars
Is one of the two largest among 40 galaxies in the Local Group
Our Solar System is located a little more than half way from the galactic center to the edge of the galactic disk.
Only one of roughly 100 billion galaxies in the Observable Universe.Slide4Slide5
Galaxies
Definition: a system that contains millions or more stars.
Galaxy clusters: groups of galaxies with more than a few dozen members
Supercluster
: galaxies and galaxy clusters tightly packed together.
Classified using a diagram called “Hubble’s Tuning Fork”Slide6Slide7
Our Cosmic Address
Earth (4.5 billion years old)
Solar System (4.6 billion years old)
Milky Way Galaxy (13.2 billion years old)
Local Group
Virgo
Supercluster
Observable Universe (13.8 billion years old)Slide8Slide9Slide10Slide11
Milky Way Galaxy Structure
Known to look like flat pancake with a bulge in the center.
Named a Spiral Galaxy because of its spiral arms.
Approximately 23,000 light years away from the nuclear bulge.Slide12Slide13Slide14Slide15Slide16
Parts of the Milky Way Galaxy
Nuclear Bulge
: sphere of stars and other material at the heart of our galaxy.
about
4000 parsecs
across
(
about
a fifth of the total spread of the spiral arms of the galaxy
.)
The very center of our galaxy in a super-massive black hole.
3-4 million times as massive as the sun.
Appears to be powering a bright source of radio
emmision
known as Sagittarius A
*.Slide17
Parts of the Milky Way
Galaxy (cont.)
Disk: Flat, rotating region of stars, dust and gas called
interstellar medium
around the Nuclear Bulge.
Can obstruct view for observations towards the Nuclear bulge.
Approximately 1,000 light years in thickness and 100,000 light years acrossSlide18
Parts of the Milky Way
Galaxy (cont.)
Spiral Arms: well defined bands in the disk because of brilliantly bright stars.
Halo: spherical in shape and contains little gas, dust, or star formation
.
Globular
clusters:
a large compact spherical star cluster, typically of old stars in the outer regions of a galaxy
.Slide19
Formation of Galaxies
A
Protogalactic
cloud contains Hydrogen and Helium.
Halo stars begin to form as the
protogalactic
cloud starts to collapse.
Conservation of angular momentum ensures the remaining gas flattens into a disk.
Billions of years later, the star-gas-star cycle supports ongoing star formation within the disk. The lack of gas in the halo prevents star formation outside the disk.
http://
scienceforkids.kidipede.com/physics/space/momentum.htm
Slide20Slide21
Facts about Galaxies and the Universe
Galaxies move apart
Expansion began about 13.8 billion years ago (the Big Bang)
This is called cosmological redshift.
Proven by observing a faint glow of radiation that is a remnant of heat from the Big Bang.
Early Universe = hotter and denser
Today’s Universe = cooler and less dens because of expansion.Slide22
Facts about Galaxies
If you look at a galaxy that is 7 billion light years away you are seeing that galaxy as it appeared 7 billion years ago.
The number of stars in the observable universe is equal to the number of grains of dry sand on all beaches on Earth.
Large
Magellanic
Cloud and Small
Magellanic
Cloud orbit the Milky Way at 150,000 light years and 200,000 light years.Slide23
http://www.universetoday.com/22828/milky-way-collision
/
Slide24
Nearby Galaxies
Andromeda Galaxy is comparable in size, though slightly larger.
Small galaxies (Sagittarius and
Canis
Major Dwarf Galaxies) are colliding with us right now!
These small collisions cause ripples in our galaxy and create new stars at points of collision.Slide25Slide26Slide27
Edwin Hubble (1889-1953)
Studied stars and galaxies outside the Milky Way galaxy.
Designed a period-luminosity relation
Proved that Andromeda is much too far away to be part of Milky Way.
Known for Hubble Law
The more distant the galaxy, the faster its moving away = greater redshift
Galaxies are moving apart in our expanding universe.Slide28Slide29Slide30