Where Are We?

I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto!-Dorothy

The Milky Way is a narrow band of Stars, gas and dust seen in the night sky

The Milky Way is thickest near the constellation Sagittarius (the teapot)

As you go away from Sagittarius the Milky Way gets thinner.

Most of the Stars we see lie in the narrow plane (1,000 l.y.) of the Milky Way

Globular Clusters are arranged above and below the plane of the Galaxy near Sagittarius

For these reasons the center of our Galaxy is thought to lie in the direction of Sagittarius

A large black hole is thought to hold the galaxy together with its powerful gravitational force

Because of the positions and movements of the stars the shape of the Milky Way seems to be a barred spiral.

The Galaxy is thought to be 100,000 light years in diameter, 1,000 l.y. thick and contain 200 – 400 billion stars

We are about 27,000 l.y. from the center.

Our solar system rotates around the galactic core once every 230 million years.

The Milky Way is part of a cluster of galaxies known as the Local group

Our sun is part of a local group of stars within the Milky Way

The large and small magellanic clouds are small galaxies close to the Milky Way.

Large Magellanic Cloud

Small Magellanic Cloud

Outside of the galaxies space is nearly empty of stars

Andromeda is the largest galaxy in our local group. It is the farthest away object that can be seen with the naked eye.