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Milky Way Facts

Milky Way Facts
The Milky Way is one of many galaxies that lie in the universe. This galaxy is a spiral or whirl shape and home to our planet and Sun. Earth is actually situated in one of the extensions of the Milky Way, away from its center. The Milky Way is very big and takes about 200 million years to make one complete rotation while it only takes Earth roughly 365 days to make a rotation.
Interesting Milky Way Facts:
There are more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.
The center of the Milky Way cannot be seen because it is blocked by a lot of gas and dust.
Light takes 100,000 years to cross from one side of the Milky Way to the other.
The Milky Way is a part of a larger group of galaxies called a Local Group.
The Milky Way is one of the three largest galaxies within its Local Group.
The center of the Milky Way contains a black hole that sucks up anything that crosses it.
The Milky Way is so named because across the night sky, it has a milky appearance.
In roughly 4 billion years, the Milky Way galaxy will collide with one of its neighboring galaxies.
We do not actually know how the Milky Way looks but taking pictures of other galaxies gives us an idea.
Until 1924, the Milky Way was the only known galaxy.
The oldest star in the Milky Way galaxy is over 13 million years old.
It takes between 225 million and 250 million years for the Sun to orbit the Milky Way.
The shape of the Milky Way was discovered by Edwin Hubble.
The Milky Way is about 14 billion years old.
The time it takes for the Sun to orbit the Milky Way one time is known as a Galactic Year.


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