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Initially, Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe, which consisted only of those planets visible with the naked eye and an outlying sphere of fixed stars. [1] After the acceptance of the heliocentric model in the 17th century, observations by William Herschel and others showed that the Sun lay within a vast, disc-shaped galaxy of ...
According to observations utilizing adaptive optics to correct for Earth's atmospheric distortion, stars in the galaxy's bulge date to about 12.8 billion years old. [270] The age of stars in the galactic thin disk has also been estimated using nucleocosmochronology. Measurements of thin disk stars yield an estimate that the thin disk formed 8.8 ...
In astronomy, coordinate systems are used for specifying positions of celestial objects (satellites, planets, stars, galaxies, etc.) relative to a given reference frame, based on physical reference points available to a situated observer (e.g. the true horizon and north to an observer on Earth's surface). [1]
Galactic quadrant – One of four circular sectors of the Milky Way galaxy; Supergalactic coordinate system – coordinate system; Astronomical coordinate systems – System for specifying positions of celestial objects; Galaxy formation and evolution – Subfield of cosmology
The term "The Local Group" was introduced by Edwin Hubble in Chapter VI of his 1936 book The Realm of the Nebulae. [11] There, he described it as "a typical small group of nebulae which is isolated in the general field" and delineated, by decreasing luminosity, its members to be M31, Milky Way, M33, Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, M32, NGC 205, NGC 6822, NGC 185, IC 1613 and ...
The existence of these relatively young stars was a surprise to experts, who expected the tidal forces from the central black hole to prevent their formation. [48] This paradox of youth is even stronger for stars that are on very tight orbits around Sagittarius A*, such as S2 and S0-102.
The team of astronomers did not expect to find the trove of stars while studying Webb images of a galaxy known as the Dragon Arc. Fortuitously, the light from the stars was magnified by a massive ...
The Milky Way Galaxy [4] is only one of the billions of galaxies in the known universe. Galaxies are classified into spirals, [5] ellipticals, irregular, and peculiar. Sizes can range from only a few thousand stars (dwarf irregulars) to 10 13 stars in giant ellipticals. Elliptical galaxies are spherical or elliptical in appearance.