Here in this interesting article you will know 20 Unbelievable and unknown facts about our home Galaxy, the Milky Way. Go through the post till the end as these Milky way facts are sure to blow your mind !!! You can also Watch the complete Video about these 20 Amazing Facts about the Milky Way Galaxy below-
20 Amazing Facts about the Milky Way Galaxy Video
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 1
The Galaxy where we live is known as the Milky Way. The milky way is a spiral shaped Galaxy containing upto 400 billion stars that also includes our own star the Sun. So the Sun is present in the Milky way galaxy along with its member planets containing our home planet Earth.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 2
Our solar system is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. We are present at a huge distance of 26,000 light years from the centre of our Galaxy. Here let me tell you that one light year is equal to nearly 9.46 trillion kilometres.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 3
In March 2019, astronomers reported that the mass of the Milky Way galaxy is equivalent to 1.5 trillion solar masses, which was over twice as much as was calculated in previous studies. It suggests that nearly 90% of the mass of the Milky way Galaxy is the mysterious Dark Matter.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 4
Let's now talk about the size of our Galaxy, The diameter of Milky way is more than 150 thousand light years. It means, Our galaxy milky way is so big that even if we could travel with the speed of light, which is the maximum speed possible theoretically i.e. 300k km per sec., it would take 150k years to travel from one end of the milky way to the other.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 5
When we see the milky way at night with our naked eyes, we see only about 0.0000025% of the galaxy's hundreds of billions of stars.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 6
Our Milky Way galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its centre having a huge mass equivalent to 4 million Suns. This giant black hole is known as Sagittarius A*. Here you should not think that sagittarius A* is the only black hole that our galaxy contains. This Is the biggest black hole present in the Milky way. Actually our galaxy may contain nearly 100 million black holes.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 7
Our milky way is a barred spiral galaxy. Barred means, central part of the milky way is bar shaped rather than an ordinary spiral galaxy.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 8
The stars that are present in the arms of the spiral galaxy are bigger and brighter. Not only this, these stars also die out more quickly.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 9
The oldest star present in the Milky Way was formed shortly after the big bang. Astronomers have estimated that this star was formed at least 13.6 billion years ago. Having so old star means that the Milky Way came into existence just after the Big Bang. So our Galaxy is one of the oldest Galaxies present in the universe.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 10
The Milky Way has grown in size by merging with its neighbouring galaxies with time. Currently it is sucking up material from the magellanic clouds and snatching Stars from a very small Galaxy known as the sagittarius dwarf spheroidal.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 11
You will find it unbelievably surprising, that the milky way is moving through space at a speed of nearly 552 kilometres per second. This speed is measured with respect to the cosmic microwave background radiation.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 12
According to astronomers, in the next 5 billion years, our Milky Way galaxy will collide with its neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy. The two Galaxies are moving towards each other at very high speed of 120 kilometres per second. This collision may last for about 5.5 billion years. When the collision Is over, the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will no longer be two spiral galaxies. They will form a single and bigger elliptical galaxy.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 13
Do You know that there are billions of galaxies smaller and larger than the milky way in the universe? The Milky Way galaxy is a huge group of stars, dust, gas and other material, which is held together in space because of their mutual gravitational force of attraction.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 14
Researches show that the Milky Way has a halo of dark matter. The halo makes up over 90% of its total mass. So even with the help of telescopes what we can see, is only 10% of the mass of the Milky Way.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 15
The stars present near the centre of the Milky Way are the oldest and most massive stars while the spiral arms of the Galaxy mostly contain newborn stars.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 16
Even though there are 400 billion stars in The Milky Way galaxy, still the nearest star, the Proxima Centauri is present at a distance of more than 4 light years from us. Keep it in mind, that our Sun is actually the nearest star to the earth, the proxima Centauri is nearest after the Sun.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 17
All the galaxies are categorised into three main groups on the basis of their shapes. These types are- Spiral galaxies like our own Galaxy the Milky Way, Elliptical galaxies and Irregular galaxies.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 18
As we know that our home planet earth is revolving around the sun, but do you know that our whole solar system along with its all the member planets is also orbiting the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy!!! The solar system is revolving around the Centre of the milky way really fast, at a speed of about 220 kilometres per second. But even at this high speed it takes it about 230 million years to complete just one revolution around the centre of the Milky Way. Therefore this period of 230 million years is called as one Galactic year.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 19
The Milky Way is not just travelling through the space at extremely high speed, it also has rotational motion. It's spinning at 270 kilometres per second and takes nearly 200 million years just to complete one rotation. With this fact only, you can imagine the size of the Milky Way.
Milky Way Galaxy Fact 20
The milky way is popular by different names in different countries and civilizations, like in China, it is known as "The silver river". Romans called our galaxy "The Milky Road". The Greeks called it the "Milky Circle". It's interesting to note that, the word "Galaxy" itself means "Milk" in Greek. In Sanskrit the Milky way is called the "Akash Ganga" or Ganges of the heavens". So these were some incredible Top 20 Facts about our beautiful, Old and Huge Galaxy, The Milky Way. Go to HOME PAGE Universe Origin Theories, Beginning, Evolution and Future of the Universe (BIG BANG Theory, Steady State Theory and Pulsating Theory)
What will you know here about UY Scuti - The Largest Star in the Universe
UY Scuti is the largest known Star in the universe. It is also known as BD 12 5055. Here we will compare the UY scuti with the Sun i.e. UY Scuti vs Sun. Various properties of UY Scuti star will be discussed in this post like its Size, Mass, Volume, Radius. You will surely enjoy the unbelievable facts about the largest Star in the Universe.
How Big is UY Scuti (UY Scuti Vs Sun)
Our Sun may appear to be the largest star to us as it is closest from the earth. But you should know that the sun is a quite average sized star in the universe in comparison to other trillions of stars in the universe. But in this post, we are going to talk about the largest known star in the universe. The size of our Sun is negligible if we compare it to the size of this star.
The name of this Hypergiant star is UY Scuti also known as BD-12 5055. The volume of UY scuti is 4.98 billion times the volume of the Sun. It means this Hypergiant star can fit nearly 3.69 billion Suns inside it. Its radius is 1700 times larger than the sun. You will be amazed to know that the size of UY scuti is so big that the distance between the two ends of the star is equal to 8 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Even if we travel at the highest possible speed, that is, the speed of light, it would take about 7 hours to travel along the UY Scuti's great circle. For comparison, let me tell you that, it would take only 14.5 seconds to circle the sun. Assuming its maximum possible size it can fit all the planets upto Saturn of our solar system. So now you can imagine how huge the UY Scuti is.
How far is UY Scuti from Earth
UY Scuti is present in the constellation Scutum. This is a pulsating variable star. It means, the brightness of the star fluctuates as seen from Earth. It grows brighter and dimmer over a 740-day period. UY Scuti star is present near the centre of our Milky Way galaxy at a very large distance of 9500 light years from the earth.
Mass of UY Scuti
Although the UY Scuti is the largest known star but it does not have the highest mass. Its mass is only slightly more than 30 times the mass of our Sun. So which is the most massive star scientists have ever found? Actually R136a1 is the most massive known star in the universe. So here you should remember that largest known star and most massive known star are not the same.
How Old is UY Scuti (Age of UY Scuti)
The age of UY Scuti star is not certain. According to scientists, it could be as young as few million years or as old as a few billion. So friends these were some amazing facts about the largest known star in the universe. As there is no end of this universe, scientists may find even bigger stars in future.
This video explains, what happens when two black holes collide. It shows effects of collision of a black hole with another black hole or other object like a star or planet. With the Help of calculations based on black hole mathematics, we have calculated the mass of the black hole after collision with black hole or another objects. This video also calculates the event Horizon radius of the black hole after collision. The event Horizon radius of the black hole is also known as Schwarzchild radius. After watching this video, with the help of calculations you will understand that the total mass of the black hole after collision is not equal to the sum of the mass of the black hole and the object falling into the black hole, as some of the mass is converted into energy. The energy released as the mass is converted into energy is given by the Einstein's famous equation E= mc2. So after collision of black holes the net mass of the black hole and it's Event Horizon radius is increased with huge amount of released energy.
Black Hole Collision Video
This video has been created by using black hole collision calculator by omni calculator. If you also want to use this calculator you can visit the website link Here
Here we will discuss, What actually the time is and is it really possible to travel through time? I will discuss here 5 different ways of time travel. So Read this post till the end as you may not be aware of all the five ways to travel through time. But first let's start with the scientific definition of time.
What is Time?
Definition of Time
According to physicists, time is the progression of events from the past to the present into the future. So we can say that a System is timeless if there is no change in it. Actually time is used to describe events in a three dimensional space. Time is the fourth dimension of reality.
5 Ways to Time Travel Video
Time the Fourth Dimension
So the four dimensions are length, width, height and time. Out of these four dimensions, the first three dimensions represent the space dimensions. As you know that we have control over first three dimensions of space. We can move freely in space in 3 dimensions in any direction forward and reverse.
But what about the fourth dimension, the time? Why we cannot move freely in the time dimension. Why we are not allowed to go forward or reverse in time as per our wish at different speeds. Is time travel really possible practically or is it just a theoretical concept.
Is Time Travel Possible ?
Initially it was thought that time travel is not possible and time flows at the same rate everywhere and for everyone irrespective of the observers frame of reference. But later it was found that this is not true. The rate of time flow is not same for everyone, it depends on several factors. So this post is all about 5 different ways, that can be used to travel through time.
Following 5 Ways of Time Travel are discussed here-
1- Moving at very high speed 2- Moving around a very massive object 3- Entering into wormholes 4- Suspended animation 5- Using rotating cylinder of light So let's start with the first and highly effective way of travelling through time, i.e. Travelling At very high speed.
1- Moving at very high speed
According to great physicist Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, if someone Travels at a speed comparable to the speed of light, time slows down for him relative to the world present outside. Let me tell you that this is not just any theoretical concept. Scientists have measured it by using very accurate and sophisticated instruments.
To test Einstein, scientists used two extremely accurate atomic clocks. The first atomic clock was kept stationary on earth while the other flown in a jet aircraft. After the experiment it was found that Einstein was right. The clock that was moving at high speed in the jet aircraft was ticking at slow rate compared to the clock kept stationary on earth. So it was proved that, if we move fast in space, we move slow in time. To give you an idea, it has been found that travelling at a speed of 90% of the speed of light, time slows down 2.6 times.
2- Moving around a very massive object
Now let's come to the second method of time travel. Moving around a very massive object. It was found by Einstein that gravity from a massive object can cause the time to slow down. But the object need to have extremely large mass, for this effect to be noticeable for us. The most massive known objects in the universe are black holes. Some super-massive black holes are billions of times more massive than the mass of our sun. So the time will slow down for a person orbiting the black hole. In another Words he will go into the future as time will move faster at earth which has negligible mass in comparison to the mass of the black hole. So we can say that, time moves slow around massive objects.
3- Entering into Wormholes
Now we will discuss the third possibility of time travel using wormholes. But before discussing this technique of time travel, you need to know, what are wormholes ? We can visualize a wormhole as a tunnel having its two ends at separate points in space-time. The other end of this tunnel may be at different locations in space or at different points in time or both. So it means, wormholes can be used to connect extremely long distances even billions of light years away or other universes and also at different points in time. These wormholes actually are solutions to the Einstein field equations for gravity. Wormholes are shortcuts through space-time.
Stephen Hawking and many other physicists believe that wormholes are constantly popping in and out of existence at the quantum level. But to use them for time travel, it is required to inflate them to human scales as quantum levels are much smaller than atoms. But Because of incompatibility between general relativity and Quantum Mechanics, various efforts by scientists have failed to prove it practically. But we should never be hopeless as it is still a way to travel through time and space both at least theoretically for now.
4- Suspended Animation
Now we will discuss the fourth idea of time travel which is the Suspended animation. Before explaining this method of time travel, let me first revise the definition of time as it will be required here. Time has been defined as the progression of events from the past to the present into the future. So this definition means if we observe no progression of events, then we say time as stopped. If Nothing is changing, everything including electrons and other subatomic particles in the atoms, everything in the universe that includes every action in our body cells has stopped. So we will not grow older in that case. In other words its nothing but simply time has stopped. So this method of suspended animation is another way to travel into the future. Using this technique we may be able to slow our perception of time by slowing down or stopping our body processes and then restarting them later. As we know, it is possible for bacterial spores to live for millions of years in a state of suspended animation. But when the right conditions of temperature, food and moisture are available, it kick starts their metabolism again. This kind of hibernation is also found in some mammals like bears and squirrels. During hibernation process the cell's requirements for food and oxygen are dramatically reduced. Such experiment has been successful on mice. As Mice do not hibernate naturally but in 2005 american scientists found a way to slow down their metabolism. This could be done by exposing them to minute doses of hydrogen peroxide. This resulted in reduction in metabolism by 10 folds and decreased body temperature to 13 degree centigrade. And surprisingly, scientists reanimated the mice without any ill effects after 6 hours. But unfortunately this method could not work for large animals like pigs and sheep.
But There is another method which induces a hypothermic hibernation. In this technique the blood of the animal is replaced by cold saline solution. We were lucky that, this method of inducing hypothermic hibernation worked on pigs. Scientists In Pittsburgh are currently conducting human clinical trials based on this technique.
5- Using Rotating Cylinder of light
The last method i.e. the fifth method to travel in time is by Using rotating cylinder of light. In this technique the spacetime is twisted by using a rotating cylinder of light. Credit of this idea goes to the American physicist Ron Mallet. But how Does this work? This can be explained with the help of a simple example of our daily life. When you swirl your coffee with the help of a spoon then you can see a bubble running around on top of it. In the same way a rotating cylinder of light is used to twist the spacetime. If we Drop anything inside this swirling cylinder, it could theoretically be dragged around in space and in time. Ron Mallet says, it is possible to travel into the past or in the future, if right geometry is used.
