Milky Way: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Tag: Reverted

Line 1:

{{Short description|Galaxy containing ourthe Solar System}}

{{About|the galaxy|other uses}}

{{Good article}}

Line 36:

<!--NOTE 2: Before editing, please do not state that the Milky Way has a large diameter (100 kly or more). This matter is currently under discussion, and any change in the figures should be consulted first at the talk page, with references being cited so that it can be subjected to a consensus. Thanks.-->

The '''Milky Way'''{{efn|name=context}} is the [[galaxy]] that includes ourthe [[Solar System]], with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from [[Earth]]: a hazy band of light seen in the [[night sky]] formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the [[naked eye]]. The term ''Milky Way'' is a translation of the Latin ''{{lang|la|via lactea}}'', from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|γαλακτικός κύκλος}} (''{{transliteration|grc|galaktikos kýklos}}''), meaning "milky circle".<ref name=eo_galaxy /><ref name="Jankowski" /><ref name="Schiller" /> From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. [[Galileo Galilei]] first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the [[Universe]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Milky Way Galaxy: Facts About Our Galactic Home |work=Space.com |url=http://www.space.com/19915-milky-way-galaxy.html |access-date=April 8, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321063305/http://www.space.com/19915-milky-way-galaxy.html |archive-date=March 21, 2017}}</ref> Following the 1920 [[Great Debate (astronomy)|Great Debate]] between the astronomers [[Harlow Shapley]] and [[Heber Curtis]],<ref name=shapley_curtis /> observations by [[Edwin Hubble]] showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.

The Milky Way is a [[barred spiral galaxy]] with an estimated [[Galaxy#Isophotal diameter|D₂₅ isophotal diameter]] of {{convert|26.8|+/-|1.1|kpc|ly|abbr=off|sigfig=3|lk=on}},<ref name="Goodwin"/> but only about 1,000 light years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulge). Recent simulations suggest that a [[dark matter]] area, also containing some visible stars, may extend up to a diameter of almost 2 million light-years (613 kpc).<ref name=croswell2020 /><ref name="dearson2020" /> The Milky Way has several [[List of Milky Way's satellite galaxies|satellite galaxies]] and is part of the [[Local Group]] of galaxies, which form part of the [[Virgo Supercluster]], which is itself a component of the [[Laniakea Supercluster]].<ref>{{cite web |publisher=youtube.com |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo |title=Laniakea: Our home supercluster |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904162040/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo |archive-date=September 4, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |display-authors=1 |first1=R. Brent |last1=Tully |first2=Hélène |last2=Courtois |first3=Yehuda |last3=Hoffman |first4=Daniel |last4=Pomarède |date=September 4, 2014 |title=The Laniakea supercluster of galaxies |volume=513 |pages=71–73 |doi=10.1038/nature13674 |bibcode=2014Natur.513...71T |issue=7516 |arxiv=1409.0880 |journal=Nature |pmid=25186900 |s2cid=205240232}}</ref>