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The Milky Way has several smaller galaxies gravitationally bound to it, as part of the Milky Way subgroup, which is part of the local galaxy cluster, the Local Group. [ 1 ] There are 61 small galaxies confirmed to be within 420 kiloparsecs (1.4 million light-years ) of the Milky Way, [ 2 ] but not all of them are necessarily in orbit, and some ...
The galactic year, also known as a cosmic year, is the duration of time required for the Sun to orbit once around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. [1] One galactic year is approximately 225 million Earth years. [2]
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.
The nature of the Milky Way's bar, which extends across the Galactic Center, is also actively debated, with estimates for its half-length and orientation spanning between 1–5 kpc (short or a long bar) and 10–50°. [23] [25] [27] Certain authors advocate that the Milky Way features two distinct bars, one nestled within the other. [28]
Picture Galaxy Type Distance from Earth Magnitude Group Membership Notes Diameter (ly) Millions of light-years Mpc M m - Milky Way: SBbc 0.0265 (to the galactic center) [2] 0.008 [2] ...
Space junk has filled up so much of Earth's orbit that it's endangering satellites and astronauts. The company Kayhan Space issues roughly 1,000 space-collision warnings per day.
Three of the closest dwarf irregular satellites of the Milky Way include the Small Magellanic Cloud, Canis Major Dwarf, and the newly discovered Antlia 2. The Large Magellanic Cloud, the Milky Way's largest satellite galaxy, and fourth largest in the Local Group. This satellite is also classified as a transition type between a dwarf spiral and ...
Average altitude of 384,403 kilometres (238,857 mi), elliptical-inclined orbit. Beyond-low Earth orbit (BLEO) and beyond Earth orbit (BEO) are a broad class of orbits that are energetically farther out than low Earth orbit or require an insertion into a heliocentric orbit as part of a journey that may require multiple orbital insertions ...