Milky Way - Wikipedia
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a D 25 isophotal diameter estimated at 26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,600 light-years), [10] but only about 1,000 light-years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulge).
Milky Way Galaxy | Size, Definition, & Facts | Britannica
Jan 15, 2025 · The first reliable measurement of the size of the Milky Way Galaxy was made in 1917 by American astronomer Harlow Shapley. Assuming that the globular clusters outlined the Galaxy, he determined that it has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years.
How Big Is The Milky Way? - Universe Today
Jan 20, 2015 · NASA estimates the galaxy at 100,000 light-years across. Since one light year is about 9.5 x 10 12 km, so the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy is about 9.5 x 10 17 km in diameter. The...
Milky Way galaxy: Facts about our cosmic neighborhood | Space
Apr 18, 2023 · Our home galaxy's disk is about 100,000 light-years in diameter and just 1000 light-years thick, according to Las Cumbres Observatory. Just as Earth orbits the sun, the solar system...
Milky Way - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Milky Way has a diameter of 26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,600 light-years) as measured using the D 25 isophote, [17] [18] [19] and is a barred spiral galaxy. The idea that the Milky Way is made of stars goes back to the Ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. [16]
The Diameter of the Milky Way - Universe Today
Dec 8, 2008 · The diameter of the luminous Milky Way is between 100,000 and 120,000 light years across, but that number could be much larger if you take into account dark matter.
The Milky Way Facts | Size, Information, History & Definition
Oct 8, 2019 · The radius of the Milky Way is estimated to be around 52.850 light-years. The Milky Way is believed to be around 12 billion years old. There are around 40 billion exoplanets (planets that orbit other stars) similar to the size of Earth orbiting …
How big is the Milky Way? | Scale of the Universe - Scale of …
Our Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years in diameter! To give you an idea of what that means, a light-year is the distance that light can travel in one year, which is roughly 5.88 trillion miles. So, if you multiply that by 100,000, you’d get the distance across our Milky Way galaxy.
StarChild: The Milky Way - NASA
The Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter. Our solar system is 26,000 light-years from the center of the Galaxy. All objects in the Galaxy revolve around the Galaxy's center.
How big is the Milky Way Galaxy? | Britannica
The first reliable measurement of the size of the Milky Way Galaxy was made in 1917 by American astronomer Harlow Shapley. Assuming that the globular clusters outlined the Galaxy, he determined that it has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years.