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The discovery of the star in the Milky Way Galaxy suggests that the galaxy may be at least 3 billion years older than previously thought. [265] [266] [267] Several individual stars have been found in the Milky Way's halo with measured ages very close to the 13.80-billion-year age of the Universe.
List of the largest known stars in the Milky Way Star name Solar radius (R ☉) Method [a] Notes Orbit of Saturn: 2,047 – 2,049.9 [8] [b] Reported for reference: Theoretical limit of star size (Milky Way) ≳1,700 [9] L/T eff: Estimated by measuring the fraction of red supergiants at higher luminosities in a large sample of supernova ...
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]
This number is likely much higher, due to the sheer number of stars needed to be surveyed; a star approaching the Solar System 10 million years ago, moving at a typical Sun-relative 20–200 kilometers per second, would be 600–6,000 light-years from the Sun at present day, with millions of stars closer to the Sun.
While Earth is located about 26,000 light-years from what's known as the galactic center, the outer portions of the Milky Way are even further, at about 58,000 light-years from our galaxy's ...
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 Milky Way started out small and grew in size as it merged with other galaxies, gaining stars as well as hydrogen to form more stars. Each galaxy has hydrogen gas that aids in the birth of stars.
Location: In the Milky Way galaxy the groups are described as thin disk, thick disk, central bulge, and halo. Multiplicity: Most stars are members of double star, or triple star, or even double-double star systems. Our own sun appears to be unusual for not having a companion star. There are many finer subdivisions in all of the above categories.