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In astronomy, galactocentrism is the theory that the Milky Way Galaxy, home of Earth ' s Solar System, is at or near the center of the Universe. [1] [2]Thomas Wright and Immanuel Kant first speculated that fuzzy patches of light called nebulae were actually distant "island universes" consisting of many stellar systems. [3]
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with a diameter of 26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,600 light-years ). It is a barred spiral galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center and many satellite galaxies.
Learn about the Sun and the objects that orbit it, including the eight planets, the nine dwarf planets, and the small bodies such as asteroids, comets, and moons. Explore the formation, evolution, and features of the Solar System and its place in the Milky Way galaxy.
The Galactic Center is the barycenter of the Milky Way and a corresponding point on the rotational axis of the galaxy. It contains a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, called Sagittarius A*, which is a compact radio source near the galactic rotational center.
Learn how the Solar System formed from the gravitational collapse of a fragment of a giant molecular cloud about 4.6 billion years ago, and how it has evolved since then. Explore the history, evidence, and challenges of the nebular hypothesis, and the fate of the Sun and its planets.
Galactic astronomy is the study of the Milky Way galaxy and all its contents, in contrast to extragalactic astronomy. Learn about the subcategories, topics, and methods of galactic astronomy, as well as its history and applications.
This spiral arm contains about 10 million solar masses of gas, mostly hydrogen atoms and molecules. [3] It is named for its distance (more accurately, 3.3 kpc ) from the Galactic Center . [ 3 ] It is about 5.2 kpc from the Sun , and is located in the fourth galactic quadrant .
The KBC Void (or Local Hole) is a large, empty region of space that contains the Milky Way and the Laniakea Supercluster. It is debated whether it is consistent with the ΛCDM model and whether it affects the measurement of the Hubble constant.