How thick is the central bulge of the Milky Way?

Surrounding the central bulge is a relatively thin disk of stars about two thousand light years thick and roughly 100,000 light years across.

What is the thickness of the disk of the Milky Way?

The Milky Way is the second-largest galaxy in the Local Group (after the Andromeda Galaxy), with its stellar disk approximately 170,000–200,000 light-years (52–61 kpc) in diameter and, on average, approximately 1,000 ly (0.3 kpc) thick.

How does the diameter of the disk of Milky Way galaxy compare to its thickness?

How does the diameter of the disk of Milky Way Galaxy compare to its thickness? The diameter is about 100 times as great as the thickness.

Does the Milky Way have a central bulge?

Like most spiral galaxies, the Milky Way has a roughly spherical collection of stars at its center called the bulge. New research finds that the majority of stars in our galaxy’s central bulge formed in a single burst of star formation more than 10 billion years ago.

What is the central bulge of the Milky Way composed of?

Classical bulges These bulges are composed primarily of stars that are older, Population II stars, and hence have a reddish hue (see stellar evolution). These stars are also in orbits that are essentially random compared to the plane of the galaxy, giving the bulge a distinct spherical form.

Are black holes rare or common?

As observations of distant galaxies accumulate, it has become clear extragalactic black holes are common in the universe. It may be that black holes formed within all medium- and large-sized galaxies (probably not in the dwarf galaxies, where there’s not sufficient mass) early in the universe.

What is the diameter of biggest galaxy?

Some estimates suggests that IC 1101 is 6 million light-years in diameter. To give you some idea of what that means, the Milky Way is just 100,000 light-years in diameter.

Where is Sagittarius A in the Milky Way?

Sagittarius A or Sgr A is a complex radio source at the center of the Milky Way which contains a supermassive black hole. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius, and is hidden from view at optical wavelengths by large clouds of cosmic dust in the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

How big is Sagittarius A compared to Earth?

After all, it has a diameter of approximately 864,400 miles (1,391,000km), which is 109 times the diameter of the Earth. However, it is just one of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.