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The Milky Way is approximately 890 billion to 1.54 trillion times the mass of the Sun in total (8.9 × 10 11 to 1.54 × 10 12 solar masses), [7] [8] [9] although stars and planets make up only a small part of this. Estimates of the mass of the Milky Way vary, depending upon the method and data used.
The Laniakea Supercluster (/ ˌ l ɑː n i. ə ˈ k eɪ. ə /; Hawaiian for "open skies" or "immense heaven") [2] or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is the galaxy supercluster that is home to the Milky Way and approximately 100,000 other nearby galaxies.
The Solar System's location in the Milky Way is a factor in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Spiral arms are home to a far larger concentration of supernovae , gravitational instabilities, and radiation that could disrupt the Solar System, but since Earth stays in the Local Spur and therefore does not pass frequently through spiral ...
This yields a mass-to-light ratio of about 300 times that of the solar ratio (M ☉ /L ☉ = 1), a figure that is consistent with results obtained for other superclusters. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] By comparison, the mass-to-light ratio for the Milky Way is 63.8 assuming a solar absolute magnitude of 4.83, [ 15 ] a Milky Way absolute magnitude of −20.9 ...
The arm is named after the Orion Constellation, one of the most prominent constellations of the Northern Hemisphere in winter (or the Southern Hemisphere in summer).Some of the brightest stars in the sky as well as other well-known celestial objects of the constellation (e.g. Betelgeuse, Rigel, the three stars of Orion's Belt, and the Orion Nebula) are found within it, as shown on Orion Arm's ...
[1] [2] With the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and visual effects, each episode presents and narrates a topic about the universe (e.g.: the origin of the universe, the formation and the evolution of the Solar System, and the origin and behavior of life), which then are complemented with scientific insights from leading scientists of ...
5th century BC — Democritus proposes that the bright band in the night sky known as the Milky Way might consist of stars. 4th century BC — Aristotle believes the Milky Way to be caused by "the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together" and that the "ignition takes place in the upper part of the atmosphere, in the region of the world which ...
The Great Attractor is a region of gravitational attraction in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way galaxy, as well as about 100,000 other galaxies. The observed attraction suggests a localized concentration of mass having the order of 10 16 solar ...