In one calculation, the Milky Way has a mass of about
100 billion solar masses
, so it is easiest to translate that to 100 billion stars. This accounts for the stars that would be bigger or smaller than our sun, and averages them out.
How much solar mass is the Milky Way?
In March 2019, astronomers reported that the mass of the Milky Way galaxy is
1.5 trillion solar masses
within a radius of about 129,000 light-years, over twice as much as was determined in earlier studies, and suggesting that about 90% of the mass of the galaxy is dark matter.
How many pounds does the Milky Way weigh?
A single solar mass weighs 2 x 10 to the power of 30 kilograms (66 pounds), or 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms. But the Milky Way weights
1.5 trillion times
that mass – that's about 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms.
How many solar systems are in the Milky Way?
How Many Solar Systems are in the Milky Way? You might think our Solar System is unique, but there are
over 5,000 solar systems
that have been discovered already and are closely analyzed.
How do we know mass of Milky Way?
The authors find that the mass of the galaxy is
0.21 x 10
12
solar masses
, the circular velocity of the galaxy at the maximum radius they look at (21.1 kpc) is 206 km/s, and the virial radius is 1.28 x 10
12
solar masses. This virial mass fits in most with intermediate values found by other studies.
How old is our galaxy?
Astronomers believe that our own Milky Way galaxy is
approximately 13.6 billion years old
. The newest galaxy we know of formed only about 500 million years ago.
Where is the most mass in the Milky Way?
“
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way
is around 6 million solar masses,” which is really tiny on the scale of the entire mass of the galaxy. And it's tiny on the scale of the most abundant, mysterious matter in the galaxy: the dark stuff. Again: 84 percent of the galaxy is made up of dark matter.
How many Earths are there?
Out of those
40 billion Earth
-like planets, how many other worlds might there be that support life? These same scientists have concluded that planets like Earth are relatively common throughout the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, the nearest one could be as close as about 12 light years away.
How many galaxies are in space?
Several thousand galaxies, each consisting of billions of stars, are in this small view. XDF (2012) view: Each light speck is a galaxy, some of which are as old as 13.2 billion years – the observable universe is estimated to contain
200 billion to two trillion galaxies
.
Does the Milky Way orbit anything?
Our galaxy does indeed!
… The Milky Way is one of two large galaxies that make up what's called the Local Group, which contains some fifty-odd galaxies. The other large galaxy involved is Andromeda, our closest galactic neighbor; our galaxy and Andromeda are slowly orbiting each other.
What is biggest star in our galaxy?
Answer: The largest known star (in terms of mass and brightness) is called
the Pistol Star
. It is believed to be 100 times as massive as our Sun, and 10,000,000 times as bright! In 1990, a star named the Pistol Star was known to lie at the center of the Pistol Nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy.
What is the value of 1 solar mass?
| Formula for an approximate result, multiply the mass value by 9.223e+18 |
What is dark matter likely to be?
Most dark matter is thought to be
non-baryonic in nature
; it may be composed of some as-yet undiscovered subatomic particles. The primary candidate for dark matter is some new kind of elementary particle that has not yet been discovered, in particular, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).
What is the oldest thing in the universe?
Universe's oldest known
quasar
discovered 13 billion light-years away. Astronomers have found the farthest known source of radio emissions
What is older than the universe?
Our Sun
is about 4.5 billion years old. Since HD 140283 is a Population II star, it is older. In fact, it is the oldest star with a well-determined age. Because of this, astronomers colloquially call the star “the Methuselah star.” Initial estimates of its age were in excess of 14 billion years.
How old is space?
Scientists' best estimate is that the universe is
about 13.8 billion years old
.
