Questions tagged [milky-way]

Questions regarding the Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy that Earth's solar system is in.

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Realistic description of a sunrise viewed from the asteroid belt?

I'm writing a scene for a short story and wanted to describe a sunrise scene acurately. If someone was in some sort of craft in the asteroid belt and their craft was coming out from behind an asteroid,...
AustinFoss's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
118 views

Have gas or dust or rock accumulated in our solar system on its 20 orbits around the Milky Way?

Also,does the absence of the accumulation of anything large such as rogue planets by the solar system suggest the Milky Way has been orderly and stable for billions of years?
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
91 views

S0-2 (S2) Diameter/Radius

I'm a student, I am doing an investigation about S0-2. My idea was to take the wavelength that emanates from the star. When I saw the data from Science magazine I found a problem that was that the ...
Nicolás Vallejos's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
99 views

Motion of solar system around Milky Way

As our solar system performs its +-230 million year lap around the Milky Way, is the orientation of the ecliptic plane preserved independent of the center of our galaxy, or does the plane perserve its ...
DanO's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
278 views

Dark Matter's effect on galaxy structure

One "fun fact" that's always been, well fun. Is despite what most assume, our sun does not orbit a supermassive black hole or any object at the center of our galaxy. Recently I read an ...
Troy Dube''s user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
131 views

How did scientists decide the boundary of the Milky Way at Edwin Hubble times?

I know Edwin Hubble used Cepheid variables to prove the Andromeda Galaxy is not part of the Milky Way. But how did scientists at that time decide the boundary of the Milky Way? And how did they find ...
Qiulang's user avatar
  • 127
2 votes
1 answer
65 views

How do we get -0.4 mJy/beam in the the 1.28 GHz MeerKAT Galactic Center Mosaic?

Dr. Becky's Feb. 11, 2022 video Move over JWST! 5 new telescopes to get excited for makes a quick mention of this image produced by the Meerkat array and published in Heywood et al. 2022 The 1.28 GHz ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
137 views

Are there any colored RAW photos of the Milky Way taken from space?

We can get RAW versions for many ISS images, like those of airglow, e.g. ISS043-E-143486. But all the photos of the Milky Way taken from ISS that I found were posted on Twitter (e.g. this, Flickr or ...
Ruslan's user avatar
  • 897
1 vote
0 answers
63 views

What Parts of the Observable Universe have we Observed?

Everyone talks about how big the observable universe is, all of the complexity, etc... But what parts of the observable universe have we actually seen? What Parts are hidden in relative shadows? Is ...
skout's user avatar
  • 289
2 votes
1 answer
505 views

Did the Grus star get expelled from the Milky way because it was accelerated by the Sagittarius A black hole?

On Wikipedia there is an article that says a star may have been expelled from the Milky Way because it interacted with Sagittarius A. Sagittarius A* from Wikipedia: In July 2019, astronomers reported ...
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2 votes
2 answers
147 views

Will the Milky Way galaxy revolve around the Andromeda galaxy or vice versa?

As all of you know, in the Milky Way galaxy, the Solar System revolves around the Milky Way to complete the Galactic year (because we have the supper massive black hole in our Milky Way galaxy) then ...
Pash0002's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
195 views

Why does the Milky Way look as though it's lit from one side?

I was reading a good explanation of why we don't see the colors in the Milky Way with the naked eye, while even undoctored photos show some color. (It has to do with our colorblind rods.) But it got ...
Launce's user avatar
  • 101
1 vote
2 answers
197 views

Orbital decay of the sun's orbit around Sgr A*: is it likely?

What are the possibilities of the sun orbiting the black hole Sagittarius A* at a very close distance? Is there anything that could possibly alter the solar system's orbit, bringing it much closer to ...
William's user avatar
  • 647
1 vote
1 answer
76 views

Can we see the colorful patches or the strip of milky way galaxy with reflector telescopes?

As reflector telescopes gather light and make dimmer images brighter, so if I viewed through telescope with 1x magnification or viewed the horizon ,would I see the strip of milky way?
Tapan Gupta's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
177 views

Does the observed sky change when solar system passes through a spiral arm of Milky way?

According to density wave theorem, some other questions here [and my basic understanding from it] the spiral arms of an spiral galaxy are fixed regions of space around it with higher gravity, where ...
Tirdad Sadri Nejad's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
106 views

can we fly a rocket past the black hole in the milky way? [closed]

Some information needed is facts about the black hole in a milky way.
Bethany Palmer's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
54 views

You find yourself on a random planet in the milky way 2000 years in the future. Can you figure out where/when you are? [duplicate]

Imagine you're on a planet in a distant part of the milky way, 2000 years from now. You don't know where you are or how much time has passed. You have access to modern astronomical data and technology ...
KidAtticus's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
82 views

Names of the galactic backdrop

I am wondering what are the various names given to the plane of the milky way. I am looking for a specific one I once heard, and will likely recognise when I see it. If I can explain better with a ...
Rabbi Kaii's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
3k views

How much light would be received on a rogue planet close to the galactic center?

I was wondering if anyone has ever attempted to estimate how much solar radiation would be received on a rogue planet floating in between star systems close to the center of the milky way, compared to ...
Schquestoning's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
4k views

What happens when the quasar remnants reach Earth in 3 million years?

According to this article, during: (during) a quasar stage in its evolution (6 million years ago) ... the Milky Way’s central black hole swallowed a huge amount of gas, creating a shock wave that has ...
RonJohn's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
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Is it possible for the Milky Way and Andromeda to get ejected upon colliding instead of merging?

The Milky Way and Andromeda are destined to collide and merge within the next 4-5 billion years, but I feel like there could be a chance that instead of merging, they could just eject each other. I ...
Prince Pugs's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
134 views

If a supernova explodes all it's comets into space, can they reach a big number of star systems?

If there's DNA life that arises on a warm planet 2 billion years after the big bang, and meteorite collisions on the planet propagate DNA unicellular organisms into millions of icy rocks orbiting the ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
  • 4,188
9 votes
1 answer
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Is the Andromeda galaxy larger than the Milky Way or not?

The Wikipedia article on the Milky Way states that it has an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars. The one on the Andromeda states that it has about a trillion stars. With this, we can conclude that the ...
Rohit Pandey's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
71 views

What could cause a wind from an SMBH

In this paper, the author tests whether the Milky Way's Fermi bubbles could have been caused by an AGN-type explosion, or by a 'wind'. He comes to the conclusion that the wind may be "the same as ...
Jim421616's user avatar
  • 2,404
4 votes
0 answers
49 views

Are magnetic vortices capable of providing magnetic lensing when observed away from the poles

Magnetic vortices-(ESA cluster mission from observations November 2018)(article, ESA, science & exploration: 'Magnetic Vortices explain mysterious auroral beads'. An observer during Saturn's ...
Butch's user avatar
  • 49
10 votes
1 answer
2k views

Where is the barycenter of the Milky Way Galaxy?

Is the barycenter of the Milky Way Galaxy located within the supermassive black hole, or its event horizon, at the center of our galaxy?
Bob516's user avatar
  • 1,447
1 vote
0 answers
44 views

Curved milky way image [duplicate]

In today's microsoft bing https://www.bing.com/ background image the milky way is seen as curved. How is this possible?
sno's user avatar
  • 920
6 votes
1 answer
133 views

How many Milky Way stars in the Andromeda picture?

I am new to Astronomy, I got interested lately thanks to James Webb Space Telescope. I have some questions. In this zoomable picture of Andromeda galaxy, how many of our stars (Milky Way stars) in ...
user50618's user avatar
  • 243
11 votes
1 answer
858 views

Early Milky Way depictions after Herschel?

We are all familiar with the 1785 drawing of the Galaxy by William Herschel, often quoted as the "First drawing of the Milky Way" Are there any other such historical drawings after this one?...
Gabriel's user avatar
  • 702
1 vote
0 answers
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Does the north pole of the Solar System (with respect to the invariable plane) point towards the galactic center?

How is our Solar System as a whole (not the wobbly Earth) tilted with respect to the invariable plane of the Milky Way? I understand our Sun's north pole is largely pointing towards our direction of ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
2k views

What are those stars that cross the galactic center?

I found this GIF by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in the Wikipedia article on the galactic year, with the following description: Visualisation of the orbit of the Sun (yellow dot and white ...
d_e's user avatar
  • 1,667
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Finding Scorpius in the Milky Way panorama

I'm searching for the constellation of Scorpius in this image. Unfortunately this is a task too hard for a newbie like me, so I would like to have an hand about that.
matteogost's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Depth of gravitational well within our local Virgo supercluster?

For simplicity we could imagine standing at the north pole so we do not have to care about how fast we are moving in relation to the gravitational field of the earth. Now calculating how much faster ...
Agerhell's user avatar
  • 457
4 votes
3 answers
484 views

Great Attractor's gravity vs Universe Expansion

I would like to know if the trajectory of our galaxy has been calculated because it is usually said that the cosmos is emptying due to the expansion of the universe but at the same time there is a ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
314 views

What is the apparent magnitude of the Milky Way from the viewpoint of the Large Magellanic Cloud?

Wikipedia contains the essentially unsourced claim that From a viewpoint in the LMC, the Milky Way's total apparent magnitude would be −2.0—over 14 times brighter than the LMC appears to us on Earth—...
rhombidodecahedron's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why does a timelapse video of a stationary Milky Way make the horizon appear to move from horizontal to vertical?

In this video, with a rotating camera keeping the Milky Way 'stationary,' the horizon appears to transition form horizontal to nearly vertical. I understand the Earth ...
99Gretzky99's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
89 views

how would you explain the motions in the solar system? [closed]

like so i don't get it it does not make sense I'm confused
your done's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

How was the speed of the Sun (around the Milky Way Galaxy) calculated?

The Sun travels around the Milky Way Galaxy with a speed of 220 km/s. The question is: where did this value come from? Is there any article about the calculation? Reformulated question: What are the ...
Julio Otuyama's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
578 views

How many stars are in the Milky Way galaxy?

So, I've always heard that the Milky Way hosts between 100 billion to 400 billion stars. My problem is very simple: I'm unable to find any research papers on that topic or giving those estimates. I'm ...
Swike's user avatar
  • 3,856
1 vote
2 answers
185 views

If all objects move, where do we go?

Yes I know that the sun and planets in the solar system travel fast with an average speed of 448,000 mph. Are we going to the center of the galaxy? If so, does that mean our galaxy is getting smaller ...
Wahyu Kristianto's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
292 views

How well have we mapped our local neighborhood of stars?

Do we have a reasonable idea of how well we've mapped our local neighborhood of stars? That is, about what fraction we know about vs. what fraction are unseen (too dim, too much dust, not enough ...
Charles's user avatar
  • 383
4 votes
1 answer
667 views

Are there black holes and neutron stars in satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting around Milky Way?

It is thought that the number of satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting around Milky Way is counted in hundreds. Are there black holes and neutron stars in satellite dwarf galaxies orbiting around Milky ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 681
5 votes
2 answers
684 views

What is the (overall) half-mass radius of Milky Way

I am doing some simulation and I need the half-mass radius of Milky Way (total mass: including all objects, dark matter, nebula...), but I cannot find the value and I don't know how to calculate it. I ...
Jinning Liang's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
119 views

How big is the Lorentz force on the Sun?

The LOFAR observations have made an estimate of the magnetic field of the Milky Way. The value in our region is very small. About 1/1000 of the Earth magnetic field. The Earth and the Sun move at a ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

How big is the energy content of the magnetic field of the Milky Way?

Galaxies have associated magnetic fields. So does the Sun and so does the Earth. In the case of the Earth and Sun it seems clear that the energy content of the magnetic fields is much less than their ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
300 views

Why is the Milky Way's SMBH inactive?

Our galaxy is not an active galactic nucleus (AGN). With so many stars and so much gas orbiting it, as explained here Central kiloparsec of Seyfert and inactive host galaxies: a comparison of two-...
Jim421616's user avatar
  • 2,404
2 votes
2 answers
359 views

Why was it so difficult to figure out the form of the Milky Way?

The exact form of the Milky Way was figured out the in early fifties of the 20-th century. Why did it take so long to see? Is it because we are in the "middle" of it? In general, it's easier ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
442 views

How big is the galactic magnetic field in the solar system and how can we measure it?

The Milky Way has an associated magnetic field. But how big is it influence in the solar system and can we measure it? I mean, when measuring, how can we make the distinction between the field of the ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
780 views

How do astronomers calculate the period about the wave motion of the solar system in the Milky Way?

According to research, excluding the motion of the entire galaxy, astronomers found the motion of the solar system in the Milky Way. The solar system revolve around the galactic bulge of the Milky ...
JohnConLee's user avatar
-4 votes
1 answer
208 views

Why is the Milky Way called like that? [closed]

From which language is the term milky way is derived and what is the largest star located in it?
marksmile's user avatar

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