• THE MILKY WAY GALAXY

Introduction:
The Milky Way galaxy is our own galaxy, which is considered to be atypical spiral galaxy. It is about 75 thousand light years in diameter and is a member of the ellipsoidal so-called ‘Local Group’ of about 20 galaxies. Following are the main characteristics of the Milky Way galaxy.

Characteristics of Milky Way Galaxy:
The Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy.
It is about 30 thousand parsecs (about 9 lacks million km) across.
There are more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
The region in space occupied by the Milky Way galaxy is called the galactic plane.
The sun is not present at the center of Milky Way.
The Milky Way Galaxy has three spiral arms, which are:
1.Orion arm
2.Perseus arm
3.Sagittarius arm
The sun revolves around the nucleus of the galaxy once in 225 million years. This duration is called the cosmic year.
The sun is not the largest star of the galaxy. It is medium sized star of the galaxy.
It is generally believed that the pearly band of Milky Way stretching across the sky is milk split from the breast of the goddess Juno.
The arms of the galaxy are known as galactic arms.