5 INTERESTING FACTS ON MILKY WAY GALAXY

 

1. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy: It has a central bar-shaped structure and spiral arms of stars, gas, and dust.

2. The galaxy is estimated to be about 100,000 light-years in diameter: It's so vast that light, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, takes 100,000 years to cross from one end to the other!

3. The Milky Way contains between 200-400 billion stars: And possibly many more, since many are too distant or too faint to detect.

4. The galaxy is moving through space: The Milky Way is part of the cosmic "dance" of galaxies, moving at about 600,000 miles per hour (965,600 km/h) as part of the Laniakea Supercluster.

5. The Milky Way is colliding with the Andromeda galaxy: The two galaxies are approaching each other at about 250,000 miles per hour (402,336 km/h) and will collide in about 4.5 billion years, merging into a new, larger galaxy.