What does the Milky Way galaxy consist of?

Answer 1

There are between 200 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, mostly spread out in a spiral disk surrounding a dense central region. Vast clouds of gas and dust called nebulae occupy much of the space between these stars, called the interstellar medium. There may also be debris and planetary objects orbiting the stars or drifting through space. At the center, there is a bar-shaped gathering of stars and gas around 27,000 light years long called the galactic core. Around this is a disk-shaped grouping of stars and matter called the stellar disk, which stretches to about 100,000 light years across and averaging 1,000 light years thick. Our Solar System is located on one of the spiral arms making up this disk. Finally, marking the outer boundary of the galaxy is the galactic halo, which is spherical and contains older stars than the disk. It surrounds the inner galactic components at up to 200,000 light years in diameter. The entire galaxy with all its constituents is thought to orbit around a supermassive black hole found in the very center of the galactic core.

The mass of the entire Milky Way is thought to be about 600 billion times the mass of the sun, and it formed a bit over 13 billion years ago. Our solar system orbits around its center about once every 250 million years. Hypothetical dark matter is suspected of occupying most of the detectable mass in the Milky Way Galaxy. While the observable matter (stars, nebulas, etc.) is as much as 400 billion solar-masses, the total theoretical mass of the dark matter is estimated between 600 billion and 3 trillion solar-masses. The Milky Way is the galaxy we are in, along with some billions of other galaxies. There are a few hundred billion stars in our galaxy, and the Sun is a star with average brightness. There are also star clusters, and nebulas which are big clouds of luminous gas.

Answer 2

Our galaxy contains between 200- to 400-billion stars arranged in a giant disc shape. The diameter is 100,000 light years with an average thickness of 10,000 light years. The Earth is located about 28,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way.

Answer 3

A galaxy is composed of stars, some of which may be arranged into star clusters. Galaxies could be considered the basic "building blocks" of the universe, even as stars could be considered the basic building blocks of galaxies. Certainly there will be vast volumes of dust and debris, but the stars are the major components. Use the link below to discover more.

Answer 4

Anywhere between 200 and 400 billion stars, most of which are expected to have planets; interstellar dust and gas; a black hole with 4 million times the mass of our Sun at the center; many smaller black holes; other stellar remnants (remainders of stars) ... and a huge amount of dark matter (about 80% of its mass), of which nobody really knows what it is made of.

Answer 5

Stars, dust, gas, dead stars (such as black holes), a supermassive black hole (about 4 million Solar masses) in the center... and a lot of dark matter, which makes up at least 80% of the galaxy's mass.

Answer 6

The Milky Way Galaxy is made up of mainly stars, but also, asteroids, dust, gas and tiny ice particals.

Answer 7

The galaxy consist of millions pf stars clustered together in large groups.

Answer 8

The milky way consists of billions of stars

Answer 9

It's a galaxy we live in.

Answer 10

Us!