Milky Way: What is our galaxy and how is it formed?

When our ancestors looked at the sky without the interference of the lights of the great cities, they saw an infinite number of stars above their heads. A bright disk of light stood out in the vastness of space: this Milky Way.

Viewed from here, our galaxy forms an arc of stars stretching from horizon to horizon. From the outside, however, an observer could see its true elliptical shape with its four arms revolving around a massive black hole.

According to ancient dialogues, Zeus placed Hercules to suck Hera’s breasts while the goddess slept. When he awoke, he was afraid of the unknown boy and pushed him away so that some of his milk was spilled.

The Greeks then unwittingly named our galaxy after their legend. Today we know that The star cloud we see in the sky is the suns next to us.. But his story begins long before that.

Interested and want to know more about it? So keep reading with us and enjoy all the information!

How was the Milky Way formed?

Shortly after the Big Bang, about 13.6 billion years ago, regions of superdensity began to form in space. They began to attract the scattered cosmic material and thus the first stars appeared.

One of these regions would be our galaxy. Today, The oldest known objects here are stars that are 13.8 billion years old.and they are located in the outermost part of the conglomerate, about 50 million light-years from the center.

Over time, more material was added to the star cluster, and so the Milky Way began to grow, consuming other galaxies around us.

In just a few billion years of life, the galaxy’s mass has grown tremendously, and the once spherical interstellar medium took the form of the disk we know today.

It was 11 billion years ago when our paths crossed. the last major star cluster, the Kraken baptized. The process of consuming smaller galaxies is still active today, sacrificing the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

Today, the Milky Way and our neighbors are estimated to be halfway through their lives. This step is a transition between so-called blue clouds – galaxies forming many stars – and red strings that never form.

Five billion years from now, our galaxy will cease to be produced. But before that, we may collide with our nearest neighbor, Andromedra.

After all, what is the Milky Way like?

Studying our own galaxy is difficult because without a good overview we parked right in the middle. European Space Agency in 2013, Gaia missionmapping several neighboring stars and bringing great scientific advances.

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy in which the solar system and therefore our planet is located. To be more precise, we are between 25 and 28 thousand light years from the galactic centervenerable.

Today we know that the Milky Way is not stationary. At its center is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* because it is located in the constellation Sagittarius and the rest revolves around it.

Sgr A* is more than 4 million times the mass of our sun. It orbits around it, a series of fast-moving stars. In 2014, astronomers saw a gas cloud collide with the black hole and disintegrate.

The galactic center is estimated to have about 10 billion stars – there are 200 billion in the whole galaxy. Most of them are ancient red giants formed in their first year of life.

The Milky Way is a barred type galaxy, meaning that before it forms its spiral arms, there is a straight bar 10,000 light-years long that defines the central region.

Leaving the central region, the galaxy’s four arms—the most prominent two—Cygnus and Sagittarius are separated, called Perseus, Scutum-Centaurus. Although they are described as perfect spirals, the shape is rather irregular and unknown.

In addition to the main branches, there are also smaller ones. In one of them, Orion is where our solar system is located. Researchers still don’t know how they formed, and studying them could bring new insights into how the universe works.

Hundreds of years ago, our ancestors looked at the night sky and marveled at what they saw. Even today we are following in his footsteps and gradually uncovering the mysteries of the Milky Way.

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