Post by glactus on Jul 8, 2011 1:11:09 GMT
The Milky way galaxy
We are the third planet and are 8.3 light minutes, 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles from the Sun
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Part of the Universe
There are about 250 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, which has a diameter if 100,000 light years.The center bulge has a diameter of about 30,000 light years and the thickness of the disc where the Earth is measures 700 light years. The age of the Galaxy is about 14 billion years. Our Solar Syatem is about 4.6 billion years old and orbits the galaxy every 250 million years.
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The Planets
Alpha Proxima is our nearest star, 4,3 light years away. It is one of a 3 star system that include Alpha Centaur. both stars interact with each other and the third star orbits both these two.
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Andromeda is our nearest Galaxy, 2.3 million light years away and contains 400 billion stars.
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The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at about 100 to 140 kilometres per second (62 to 87 mi/s) (400 lightyears every million years), so it is one of the few blue-shifted galaxies. The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are thus expected to collide in about 4.5 billion years
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Gravity binds stars into galaxies, into clusters of galaxies, and into super clusters. The number of stars in the Universe is immeasurable, as are the number of planetary systems, and we believe, intelligent civilizations.
Looking at Jupiter
Credits: These are non copywrite images
Text: Glactus has been given special permission to use this text which is in part only. See full text titled "Our place in the Universe" by Jack Van Dusen on the link below
members.efn.org/~jack_v/Universe.html
Telescope in avatar: Meade 16" LX 200
Astronomer in avatar: Glactus