Way Galaxy
One of the beauties of human existence is the way in which we relate to our world and come to process in terms that further our understanding. Though the star around which our planet and others travel and Earth’s own satellite did not come with labels attached, at least in terms of the English language, we saw fit to give them the common names “the sun” and “the moon.” That is the essence of the phenomenon of language; it allows us to organize our world for efficient cognitive processing. While those who follow astronomy will often employ number-and-letter codes or names based on classical languages (for instances, our sun might alternatively be referred to as Sol) for the official classification of stars and planets, when used popularly, phrases like “the moon” are just as good for one to be comprehended. Anyone with a basic grasp of astronomy and the size of the universe knows that our solar system is just a small piece of the proverbial pie, and one star in itself is just a minute part of an individual galaxy. In the popular vernacular, we too have a name for the galaxy in which we reside. Earth is part of the Milky Way Galaxy.
The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies presumed to exist in our universe, but it itself contains a lot of matter. Speaking of billions, it is estimated that this galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars in its wake. Its name is derived from Greek and Latin roots and literally corresponds to its appearance as a milky circle, and has been of interest to the field of astronomy before it was even organized into a formal science and by one-name Greek philosophers in years B.C. Even as late as the 1900’s, the most brilliant minds in astronomy considered the notion that there might not be anything in the universe beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. However, advances in telescopic technology and new theories of the behavior of matter on Earth and beyond have yielded the now widely accepted as fact idea that innumerable other galaxies exist.
As alluded to, the Milky Way Galaxy is composed of a fairly sizable amount of stars, of which our solar system is just a part of one of the galaxy’s arm. Looking at our galaxy from an outside perspective, we would notice it is disk-shaped, spiral galaxy with a central grouping of stars that forms a mass in the middle. The outer portion of the disk is composed of, obviously, stars as well as dust and other galactic particles. As for the age of the Milky Way Galaxy, that is likewise of a comparatively large number. Once again, we should think in terms of billions, as in billions of years. The mass of our galaxy, in solar masses, is also to be conceived of in billions, and its size, measured in hundreds of thousands of light years, is nothing to sneeze at. For people trying to make a foray into the field of astronomy, the Milky Way is certainly a nice-sized place to start.
