The Milky Way

[Mr. Dictator]

I'm just curious...

What all do we know about the Milky Way other than we're here?

Any good theories on what's in the center?

 

[EdwardTking]

I'm just curious...

What all do we know about the Milky Way other than we're here?

Any good theories on what's in the center?

Crunchy nuts and nougar.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Crunchy nuts and nougar.

*walks right into it*

 

[EdwardTking]

Probably a large black hole, that was fairly inactive 30,000
years ago when the light we see now left the centre.

 

[nc-1701]

Supermassive blackhole ~2 million solar masses, a buttload of stars, and gas clouds etc.

It's a pretty average galaxy...

 

[Lillefix]

Actually the milky Way is much larger than the average galxy. Most galaxies are small and irregular.

 

[Bluemofia]

The Milky Way is also in the process of cannibalizing the Sagittarius galaxy.

There's this one thing known as "the great annihilater" because it shoots out anti-matter beams that destroys things. Thought to be a black hole.

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy according to recent observations of cold hydrogen emissions.

The large and small Magellanic clouds are galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.

We are due to a collision with the Andromeda galaxy, one that's twice as large and massive as ours in 4 billion years.

What else would you like to know?

 

[Bozo Erectus]

What else would you like to know?

Why did they name it after a candybar?

 

[Bluemofia]

The candy bar was named after the galaxy.

It supposedly looked like spilled milk to the Greeks.

 

[a space oddity]

[...] It supposedly looked like spilled milk to the Greeks.

Hmm, how about the "white road" translated in a ... errr .... creative way?

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Uh oh...(opens an umbrella)

 

[ulsterman88]

I seen a program recently that said the centre was occupied by a supermassive black hole. It also said without it the galaxy would collapse/implode/something along those lines anyway.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Muse is the centre of the galaxy?

 

[Esckey]

We(Milky Way) has several spiral arms, 4 major ones, and a couple of others that have been pulled/strun out of their parent arms probably due to gravity

 

[The Yankee]

Why did they name it after a candybar?

Would you rather we live in the Snickers or the 3 Musketeers or the Baby Ruth?


...
What kind of information have we gathered about the galaxy beyond its size and an approximation of stars?

 

[ArneHD]

There's this one thing known as "the great annihilater" because it shoots out anti-matter beams that destroys things. Thought to be a black hole.

Never heard of it, not on wikipedia, care to substanciate?

 

[Bluemofia]

Never heard of it, not on wikipedia, care to substanciate?

It's not like "Oh! Destroy the galaxy!" type anti-matter beams. But that's what it's called.

Great Annihilator

 

[Perfection]

Stars don't stay in any spiral arm of the galaxy. They are just locations where stars of many different orbits spend a fair amount of time.

 

[warpus]

It may be as many as 6,000 years old.

 

[Communisto]

why havent we spotted aliens yet? seriously, I'm starting to get impatient.