is the milky way fattening?
83684
Well, let's see.\n\nThe milky way's mass is something like:\n2,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000 lbs\nwhich is huge, considering that is the same mass as 200,000,000,000,000,000 earths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!\n\nIn other words, more grams of fat than your calculator can hack.
39505
That's a tough answer for even astronomers to estimate accurately. I've studied astronmy for 30+ years and it seems that the most common answer is between 200 to 400 billion. What's kind of funny about that is it seems to be really rare to read an article that says there are about 300 billion stars in the Milky Way. I have no idea why that is- strange huh? It is more common to read the number 200 billion though. Remember nobody actually counts them unless a computer does it. It's just an estimate based on a number of different obsevations. There is a lot of our galaxy that can't be seen because of interstellar dust and gas. We can't even see the center of the Milky Way from here with our eyes. We can only look towards the center which is in the constellation of Sagittarius.\nWe can see the center and other obscurred areas using different wavelenths of light that the human eye can't see, but it's still hard to pin down a close number with accuracy.
671223
Like the number of grains of sand on the beach or angels that can dance on the head of a pin, the number of stars in the sky remains a great unknown. Discussing the number of stars in the Milky Way alone, astronomer William Keel, writing for the sci.astro Galaxies FAQ, claims that there are "about as many as the number of hamburgers sold by McDonald's." \nThen he elaborates. The usual way to determine the number of stars in the universe is to consider how many stars there are in the Milky Way, and then to multiply that number by our best guesstimate at the number of galaxies in the universe. This FAQ suggests there are probably about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, although "a 50% error either way is quite plausible." As for the number of galaxies in the universe, well that's a whole separate mathematical puzzle. \n\nOther star enumerators we located on the Web offer numbers ranging from more than 200 billion stars in our galaxy to 3 thousand million billion stars (3 followed by 16 zeroes), in the universe. NASA alleges there are zillions of uncountable stars.
1017222
The Magellanic Clouds are two dwarf galaxies gravitationally bound to the Milky way. The Large Magellanic Cloud is closer at about 160,000 ly, the Small Magellanic Cloud is about 200,000 ly,\n\nSo the answer is the SMC.\n\nBut wait, there's more! Some say the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (Sag DEG) is closest at 70,000 ly but has minlged with the MW to such an extent some even doubt it exists.\n\nSo it's the SMC, but it could be the LMC.
1032061
well you think\nthere are billions of glaxies and inside those galaxyies there are billions of solar systems and inside those there are planets in each one  i havent even started to count the stars yet and it seems the possibility would be very likily
1122794
Well, just our own galaxy is around 1 x 10^18 km across (or 1 x 10^21 m). Lets scale it down to the diameter of the Earth  at 12,750 km, or lets call it around 1 x 10^7 m. This means we would have to scale down the galaxy by a fact of 10^14.\n\nOn this scale, the Earth would have a diameter of around 1 x 10^-10 m. This is about one ten thousandth the diameter of a human hair. So a galaxy the size of the Earth would have and Earth 1/10000th the size of a hair.\n\nIt does not help our concepts of the scales to continue this to the Universe - its just very very big.
12233
The universe is old..the Milky-way galaxy here is young...we..we are a flash in the night ...life is everywhere WE are made up from the universe...Life else where? Most definitely..how self centered to believe other wise..very narrow minded and shallow indeed.
72985
There are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. If just one in out of every million of those had planets, and if just one of every million of those had life, and if just one of every million of those had intelligent life, then there would be literally millions of intelligent civilizations out there, just in our galaxy alone. And there are many billions of galaxies. If it is just us, seems like an awful waste of space.
313861
YES. There are many stars in our galaxy with solar system formed.
228035
Hubble sights Milky Way's 'twin'\n \nThe spiral galaxy is some 50 million light-years away from Earth\n\nNGC 3949 is a large spiral galaxy and, in astronomical terms at least, is relatively nearby at around 50 million light-years away from Earth. \n\nGalaxies like this help astronomers understand more about our own. \n\nThis is because the Sun and the Solar System are so embedded in the Milky Way that it is difficult to see our galaxy's large-scale structure. \n\nLike the Milky Way, NGC 3949 has a blue disc of young stars peppered with bright pink star-birth regions. \n\nIn contrast to the blue disc, the bright central bulge is made up mainly of older, redder stars. \n\nIt is a member of more than 50 galaxies located in the direction of the Big Dipper, in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear). \n\nIt is one of the largest galaxies in this cluster. \n\nHubble trouble \n\nThe image was created from data taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 2001. \n\nSeparate exposures through blue, visible and near-infrared filters were combined to make the natural colour picture. \n\nThe US space agency Nasa announced on Friday that one of the four instruments on board the Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working. \n\nThe STIS, or Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, stopped working on 3 August and went into what Nasa officials call a "suspended mode". \n\nEngineers are currently trying to track down the source of the problem and Nasa has convened an Anomaly Review Board to determine whether the failed instrument is recoverable. \n\nHubble's other instruments are all operating normally.
515664
Our galaxy the Milky Way contains about a hundred billion stars, there are billions of galaxies out there. I think man would be presumptious to the extreme if he believed he were the only intelligent life to exist in all of creation. I am sure with all the advances in technology, that within twenty years a signal will be picked up, that unmistakeably answers your question: We Are Not Alone!
637048
the sun is not the largest star in the milky way galaxy. just so you know. there are many more stars larger than it. and in a few billion years, the sun will go supernova, expanding many millions of miles to engulf all of the smaller planets, like mercury and Earth.
138345
Just about all astronomers agree that at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy (and probably at the center of most other galaxies) lies a supermassive black hole. It probably has a mass at least 2-million times that of our Sun, and is approximately 96-million miles in diameter.\n\nThese figures come from careful observation and measurment of the motions of other objects near the galactic center.\n\nThis page has more info, plus a photo ---\nhttp://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021018.html
73499
The farther we look into the universe with telescopes like Hubble and others, the more galaxies we see. I read a very interesting fact in an astronomy magazine recently that said it is estimated that if you hold your thumb out at arms lenth, close one eye and look at the top of your thumb nail, you are covering up an estimated 240,000 galaxies with your thumb regardless of what direction you look!!!!!! Each galaxy might have an average of 100 to 200 billion stars in them! I have no idea for the estimate of sand grains on every beach in the world-maybe that would be a good question to ask separately in the geography section- but I'm positive that there are quite a bit more stars than sand grains. Good luck!
271893
Damn, mosi... I thought it was rich, chocolate nougat.\n\nOh, that's in the center of a Milky Way bar. \n\nNevermind...
552570
"Our own Milky Way, a typical giant spiral galaxy, includes at least 100 billion stars in its diameter." \n100 billion\n\nEncyclopedia Britannica. Astronomy. 2000. "There are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy" \n100 billion\n\nEddington, A. S. The Interior of a Star. 1926. "The Sun belongs to a system containing some 3,000 million stars." 3 billion\n\nBoorstein, Daniel J. Discovery of the World. New York: Random House, 1983: 320. "...the Galaxy is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters."\ninnumerable\n\nButterworth, Paul. Stars in Our Galaxy. Ask a High-Energy Astronomer. 1998. "We can only see a few thousand stars at most with our unaided eyes. These are a mixture of stars which are nearby, and bright stars which are further away; but they are only a tiny fraction of the 100,000,000,000 stars in our own galaxy." \n100 billion
1086035
This question  has been asked before, hasnt it? Sounds familiar.\n\nSpace is never ending, you can leave the Milky Way and you will enter another galaxy, depending on where ure exit point is.