What the Milky Way Really Looks Like?

According to the dominant scientific hypothesis today, about 13.8 billion years ago the tremendous event called the Big Bang occurred that created our universe. Incredibly powerful gravity waves likely compressed the primary gas into gigantic clumps while unrelenting forces of gravity ignited thermonuclear fire in its depths. Thus illuminating the universe with the first stars, these forces also grouped stars into large-scale clusters that would later coalesce into even more complex structures of colossal proportions billions of years later, one of them becoming the cradle of a amazing phenomenon, life and, although humanity is still confined to our native system we have discovered a lot about our own galaxy

what

do we already know about the

milky

way long before telescopes were invented people could observe a swath of light crossing the heavens the fascinating and mysterious phenomenon caused a multitude of legends but it took thousands of years of scientific progress to finally realize it.

It turned out that the

milky

way was not a path of gods,

what

it is is the dissipated light of thousands of millions of stars too remote to distinguish each one separately The idea that the stars around us are part of a single structure of enormous dimensions was first suggested by Emanuel Kant in 1755. He also assumed that some nebulae discovered by scientists could be in reality remote star clusters, that is, other galaxies where this ingenious gas was very ahead of its time, since the philosopher's contemporaries initially ruled it out, only at the beginning of the 20th century did progress in observation equipment allow scientists confirm the existence of other galaxies and in 1936, Edwin Hubble devised the classification system, many of its principles are still mentioned.

According to the system, according to scientists today the Milky Way belongs to the category of barred spiral galaxies, although it took a long time before it assumed this appearance. Our galaxy is quite old, since the stars in its central globular clusters were born so far away. About 13 billion years ago at the same time there are some areas in the Milky Way where stars are actively being born, which means that there is always a fresh supply of young stars. The data collected indicates that the Milky Way is a comparatively large galaxy in astronomical terms, The diameter of its disk measures up to two hundred 000 light years with a halo that extends into much deeper space, but our galaxy is home to at least 200 billion different stars, as well as between 25 and 100 billion brown dwarfs in addition. , contains more than a trillion planets, countless small celestial objects, as well as clouds of cosmic dust and interstellar gas that can reach gigantic dimensions.

At the same time, regular mass represents a small proportion in the galaxy, about 90 percent of the Milky Way's total mass. the so-called dark matter the amount of light emitted by this mysterious and widespread substance is negligible, however, dark matter plays an active role in gravitational interaction, although most of the galactic mass remains invisible, we can still calculate it for that purpose , scientists refer to the stars. trajectories of movement around the center of the milky way according to estimates the total mass of our galaxy reaches between 0.8 and 1.5 trillion solar masses the structure of the milky way is quite elaborate we will begin our journey today from its center this area The galaxy is enveloped in huge clouds of gas and dust, but by a happy coincidence we can observe it through the so-called Bardes window, an area of ​​space with smaller amounts of dust, like most spiral galaxies, The Milky Way has a supermassive black hole in its center that is surrounded by an accretion disk with a radius of approximately three light years, called the Sagittarius star, it is the object of this class closest to us, its mass is 4, 3 million solar masses and its radius does not exceed 16 million kilometers, which is three times smaller.

In addition to the orbit of Mercury, the first data on the nature of the object at the center of our galaxy were obtained through long observations and painstaking calculations. Only on May 12, 2022 was it possible to obtain the first image with the help of the Thanks to the network of radio telescopes, the previous hypotheses were confirmed. The area in the center of our galaxy is very populated. More than 6,000 stars have already been detected three light years from the black hole and the orbits of some of them are quite defined. For example, there is a white and blue star with the name s62, which is 17.8 astronomical units from the black hole at its closest point and moves at a speed of 6.7 percent, the speed of light.

The laws of classical mechanics are inadequate to describe the trajectory of movement of a black hole. star as fast as that due to relativistic effects, just to illustrate, the axis of its orbit moves 75 angular minutes with each complete orbit, in addition, when crossing this area in space we can see several large star clusters with a total mass of about 1 million solar masses. and a little further away, about 200 light years, another massive black hole is likely lurking whose mass should be around a hundred thousand times that of the Sun. If we travel further, we will reach the central molecular cloud in an area of regular that measures between one thousand six hundred and nineteen years. hundred light years whose mass exceeds sixty million solar masses there are many stellar nurseries and gas nebulae, as well as protostars and supernova remains.

Most of the clouds are dense hydrogen whose temperature fluctuates between 50 and 600 kelvin, which corresponds to 223 degrees Celsius below zero to 327 degrees Celsius above zero the spectral analysis shows that the gigantic nebula contains carbon monoxide, methyl alcohol and hydrogen cyanide acid, in addition to hydrogen, having retreated a little from the center of the Milky Way, we will see that it is surrounded by a shiny, massive lump. formation of an elliptical shape with a length reaching 10,000 light years its transverse diameter is about 7 light years the total mass of the bulge is as much as 10 billion times that of the sun the exact number of stars cannot be calculated due to Its radiation mixes and makes any estimate unrealistic.

As the protuberance is elongated, it forms the so-called bar that extends for approximately 13,000 light years and serves as the base for the galactic spiral arms. It is here, at one of its ends, where we can see the Stevenson II star cluster that contains the largest star known today, its designation is Stevenson 2-18 and its radius is 2150 times greater than that of the sun. Unfortunately, the chances of finding exoplanets orbiting this exceptional object are quite minuscule - even if planets existed at some point in the past, the hypergiant would have been swallowed up. As the center of the galaxy expanded, it houses billions of stars and apparently a large number of exoplanets.

The chances of finding a potentially habitable world among this large multitude are much lower than in less populated areas of the galaxy. This is due to the fact that When a large number of stars are located very close together, they destabilize the orbits of exoplanets while their powerful radiation is lethal to all living beings, that is why a special area in the galaxy is defined as the habitable zone, it

looks

like a ring with a radius that measures 22 to 29,000 light years and contains star systems with the most favorable conditions for the genesis of biological life. The worlds within the ring languish exposed to excessive radiation, while beyond the ring there is a lack of heavy elements;

However, mathematical models show that stars within galaxies are capable of migrating thousands of light years away, thus leaving the habitable zone or entering it, consequently, having an exoplanet within the zone does not automatically suggest conditions favorable when moving away from the center of the Milky Way, we will have the opportunity to see its most impressive part. The galactic disk is made up of two components with different properties, the first known as a thin disk measures between one thousand and one thousand three hundred light years thick and its visible radius measuring up to fifty thousand light years at the edge, it gradually dissipates with the outermost stars located one hundred thousand light years from the center of the galaxy.

This part of the Milky Way contains about 80 percent of the galaxy's visible mass and was, in fact, the last component to form. As for the thick disk, its diameter is comparable to that of the thin disk but it is four times larger and is much more rarefied. It is formed by old stars and is practically devoid of observations of interstellar gases of some stars also in the Milky Way. As mathematical models show that our galaxy swallowed another in the period between 11 and 8 billion years ago, this hypothetical cosmic structure was called Gaia Enceladus and is believed to have contributed several billion stars to the Milky Way, as well as large quantities of interstellar galaxies. gas and dark matter it is thanks to this tremendous event that most of our galaxies formed thick disks and an additional supply of gas led to a stellar baby boom there is no doubt that the spiral arms are the most notable structural elements of the disk of our galaxy generally two the main ones stand out the scutum centaurus arm and the perseus arm and two minor ones the norma arm and the carina sagittarius arm sometimes a fifth large arm is taken into account that is named after the constellation of cygnus the galactic arms are areas With an especially high star count most of the interstellar gas is also concentrated here, so the rate of star formation in the arms is three to five times higher than in the galaxy.

On average, they spend the first million of their lives in open clusters, but the forces of gravity are too weak to hold the stars. Together for a long time, this destabilizes the clusters and the young stars gradually move away from each other. Traveling along the Sagittarius Carina arm, we will reach a bifurcation that joins it to the Perseus arm. The length of this stellar structure reaches 11,000 light years and its wide, it measures approximately 3,500 light years, it is known as the Orion arm and it is here, 27,000 light years from the center of the galaxy, where the solar system is located.

From the perspective of our planet, the center of the galaxy is seen as a dark abyss this is the gray drift an area of ​​space that excludes most of the milky way from our gaze, it is filled with enormous clouds of interstellar gas and dust and its total mass is up to a million times that of the sun, despite the large drift is practically not transparent in the optical range its matter actively emits radio waves and thermal energy data from spectral analysis reveal that the clouds are composed mainly of hydrogen with a small percentage of more complex compounds, ammonia, alcohols and amino acids, It is believed that a potential stellar nursery is due to the large drift but it will take a while until the first stars light up in that area while it is not yet fully active, let's advance beyond the galactic disk even though its bright arms and clearly defined attract a lot of attention. more to the milky way than that if we look closer we will see the vastest and most terrified of its components the halo its visible spherical part extends up to 260 thousand light years from the center of the galaxy but represents only a few percent Of the total mass, the halo contains a large number of globular clusters formed by extraordinarily old stars more than 12 billion years old and several tremendous stellar streams.

The Sagittarius stream, for example, made up of several thousand stars, surrounds our galaxy in elongated ellipses that are almost perpendicular to the main plane. Modeling shows that it is very likely that all of these stars were gravitationally captured by the Milky Way from a dwarf satellite galaxy called Sagittarius. It is located 500,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way and will be completely devoured by it in several billion years. Another dwarf galaxy has already suffered a similar fate, located in the constellation of Canis Major, it was almost destroyed by the Milky Way, which dragged millions of its stars by gravitational forces that spread over 200,000 light years and mixed together with other stars, this chain of stars with a total mass of about 100 million solar masses has already given three times around our galaxy.

In addition to bright but rare stars and clusters, the halo contains large amounts of gas whose temperature reaches millions of Kelvin, as well as large amounts of dark matter. It is believed that dark matter is dispersed in the vicinity of the Milky Way forming the so-called dark halo that is It extends up to 2 million light years, barely emits electromagnetic radiation and can only be detected through gravitational interaction. The dark halo remains an unsolved mystery, however, it contributes greatly to the global stability of our galaxy. the milky way isJust one of the countless structures in the universe, together with other galaxies, forms the local group, which in turn is part of the Virgo supercluster. galaxy clusters are grouped into filaments that form structures of even larger scale. cosmic scales are so stupendous that they can hardly be appreciated by the human mind, yet our knowledge about the universe becomes more and more precise with each passing day and the mysteries of the cosmos succumb to human tenacity one after another. the power of the human mind and progress and we are proud to be a part of it, don't hesitate to give us a like if you are ready to conquer the mysteries of the universe together with cosmo, let's stay in touch with you.