Where are we?
Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies
Despite my nickname, I haven't studied galaxies nearly enough. As a Carl Saganist, I emphasize a galactic perspective, but what do we really know about galaxies?
Here's some starting info that I gathered today:
Earth's solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy, which contains 200-400 billion stars. Our sun orbits the Milky Way about every 225-250 million years.
The Milky Way and Andromeda make up a binary spiral galaxy system at the center of our Local Group, which contains about 30 galaxies, many much smaller than ours.
This Local Group is part of the Virgil Supercluster of about 100 galaxies.
There are approximately 200 billion galaxies in the known universe.
Our universe is estimated to be 13.2 billion years old.
Despite my nickname, I haven't studied galaxies nearly enough. As a Carl Saganist, I emphasize a galactic perspective, but what do we really know about galaxies?
Here's some starting info that I gathered today:
Earth's solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy, which contains 200-400 billion stars. Our sun orbits the Milky Way about every 225-250 million years.
The Milky Way and Andromeda make up a binary spiral galaxy system at the center of our Local Group, which contains about 30 galaxies, many much smaller than ours.
This Local Group is part of the Virgil Supercluster of about 100 galaxies.
There are approximately 200 billion galaxies in the known universe.
Our universe is estimated to be 13.2 billion years old.