

If the Milky Way was a normal spiral galaxy, its arms would lead right to its center (or nucleus) like in the Andromeda Galaxy. This bar contains the galaxy’s nucleus in the center and has two spiral arms attached to its ends. To be more specific, the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, which means it has a central bar-shaped straight structure composed of stars. The spiral-shaped Milky Way belongs to the first type if you could see it from the top (or the bottom), it would look like a spinning pinwheel. There are four main types of galaxies: spiral, elliptical, peculiar, and irregular. People in eastern Asia called it the Silvery River of Heaven the Finns and Estonians believed it was the Pathway of the Birds in Southern Africa, it’s called the Backbone of Night. Other cultures had their own myths and beliefs regarding the starry band of light in the night sky. The Greeks believed that it was milk from the goddess Hera who spilled it across the sky, and the Romans myth said that the Milky Way was milk from their goddess Ops. Both the Greeks and Romans saw the starry band as the river of milk. The name of our home galaxy, like the names of many other astronomy objects, came from the ancient Greek and Roman cultures. By the way, the Local Group - a group of multiple galaxies including the Milky Way - extends for roughly 10 million light-years around us in space. The Milky Way is 105,700 light-years wide while the Andromeda Galaxy is 220,000 light-years in width. The Milky Way is the second-largest galaxy in the Local Group of galaxies the first place goes to Andromeda. It might be hard to believe, but that starry band across the night sky that we can see from the Earth is actually a huge galaxy that extends billions of kilometers around our planet.

The Earth is located inside this galaxy, so it is often called “our home galaxy” or simply “our galaxy.” The Milky Way galaxy is a huge collection of dust, gas, and stars, including our Sun. How many constellations are in the Milky Way?.How many Solar Systems are in the Milky Way?.How do we know what the Milky way looks like?.What is at the center of the Milky Way?.Keep reading, and you’ll learn what it is, where is our place in the galaxy, and when is the best time to view the Milky Way. In this article, we gathered answers to the most popular questions about the Milky Way.
