The Milky Way is our home galaxy, a giant collection of stars, dust, gas, and dark matter. Here's a rundown of what we know about it: Age: The Milky Way is estimated to be around 13.6 billion years old, which is roughly the same age as the universe itself! Size and Mass: The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, estimated to be roughly 100,000 light-years across and containing a mass of about 100 billion times that of our sun. Stars: It's a stellar metropolis! The Milky Way is estimated to contain between 100 and 400 billion stars, with a variety of types including everything from giant, burning stars to faint, cool dwarfs. Star Formation: Our galaxy isn't static, new stars are constantly being born from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. The current star formation rate is estimated to be around 2 solar masses per year. Collisions: The Milky Way isn't alone in the universe! It has a larger neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, and they are on a collision course. In about 4....
“The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can't imagine”