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The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and ...
Our solar system is moving with an average velocity of 450,000 miles per hour (720,000 kilometers per hour). But even at this speed, it takes about 230 million years for the Sun to make one complete trip around the Milky Way. The Sun rotates on its axis as it revolves around the galaxy.
Researchers have found hundreds of extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, that reside outside our solar system; there may be billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way Galaxy alone, and some may be habitable (have conditions favorable to life).
Studies of the orbital velocity of stars near the sun revealed that there is at least twice as much mass in the Milky Way galactic disk as can be accounted for by adding up the mass of all stars and interstellar clouds.
Globular clusters are balls of thousands and hundreds of thousands of some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. They are fairly clean of interstellar gases. Many globular clusters have a core containing a group of unusually young and massive stars called blue stragglers.
The diminutive galaxy, named by its discoverers as Bedin 1, measures only around 3,000 light-years at its greatest extent — a fraction of the size of the Milky Way.
Galileo Mission Finds Strange Interior of Jovian Moon. Galileo was designed to make the first study of Jupiter and its moons and magnetosphere from orbit. The orbiter carried 10 science instruments and a atmospheric probe.
Pioneer 11 to End Operations After Epic Career. Artist's concept of Pioneer spacecraft and the Milky Way Galaxy. After nearly 22 years of exploration out to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, one of the most durable and productive space missions in history will come to a close.
Even after the Sun has burned itself out, billions of years from now, vast numbers of our ejected comets will still be wandering our Milky Way Galaxy. Even when all of the stars of the Milky Way have finally burned out, these bodies will still be there wandering the darkness of space.
sk and halos of spiral galaxies like the one shown in this figure. Studies of the orbital velocity of stars near the sun revealed that there is at least twice as much mass in the Milky Way galactic disk as can