Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. [1] [2] The word is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System.
The Solar System [d] ... (269,000 AU) away. Both stars belong to the Milky Way galaxy. Formation and evolution ... is the only place in the universe where life and ...
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 in other arms of the galaxy, which are so far away that they cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye.
This is the galaxy containing the Sun and its Solar System, and therefore Earth. [citation needed] Nearest galaxy to the Milky Way Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy: 1994 0.070 Mly The closest, undisputed galaxy. The disputed dwarf galaxy Canis Major Overdensity is even closer at 25,000 light-years. [citation needed] Nearest dwarf galaxy
The physical universe is defined as all of space and time [a] (collectively referred to as spacetime) and their contents. [10] Such contents comprise all of energy in its various forms, including electromagnetic radiation and matter, and therefore planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space.
Orbit of the Solar System: 17,200 pc 5.31×10 17: The average diameter of the orbit of the Solar System relative to the Galactic Center. The Sun's orbital radius is roughly 8,600 parsecs, or slightly over halfway to the galactic edge. One orbital period of the Solar System lasts between 225 and 250 million years. [34] [35] Milky Way Galaxy ...
Artist's logarithmic scale conception of the observable universe with the Solar System at the center, inner and outer planets, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, Alpha Centauri, Perseus Arm, Milky Way galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy, nearby galaxies, Cosmic web, Cosmic microwave radiation and the Big Bang's invisible plasma on the edge. Celestial bodies appear ...
In 1750 Thomas Wright, in his work An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe, correctly speculated that the Milky Way might be a body of a huge number of stars held together by gravitational forces rotating about a Galactic Center, akin to the Solar System but on a much larger scale.