The+Milky+Way

=T h e  M i l k y W a y  ( W e  <span style="color: #ffff00; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">a <span style="color: #1cb021; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">r <span style="color: #1688da; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">e <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">n <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">o <span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">t <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #ffff00; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">t <span style="color: #1cb021; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">a <span style="color: #1688da; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">l <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">k <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">i <span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">n <span style="color: #ffff00; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">g <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #1cb021; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">a <span style="color: #1688da; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">b <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">o <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">u <span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">t <span style="color: #008000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #ffff00; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">c <span style="color: #1cb021; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">h <span style="color: #1688da; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">o <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">c <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">o <span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">l <span style="color: #ffff00; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">a <span style="color: #1cb021; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">t <span style="color: #1688da; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">e <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">s <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">! <span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">) = __**Facts and Size Ratios:**__ You may not know but our solar system is actually inside the Milky Way galaxy. Our Sun is positioned on one arm of the Milky Way (called the Orion Arm). This arm is 26,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. The Sun is one of the 200-400 billion stars in this galaxy; the entire Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years. This galaxy is just one of the many in the entire universe but it is definitely one of the largest in the universe.

The Milky Way consists of 3 main parts: a disk, a bulge and a halo. The disk is the where the solar systems are, the bulge is the core of the Milky Way and the halo is what surrounds it all. There is 4 major star-forming arms: the Norma Arm, the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, the Cygnus Arm, the Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm. The Orion Arm is one of the smaller and less productive arms (also known as the Local Spur). These arms are made up of dust, rocks, gas and stars.
 * __Parts of the Milky Way:__**

__**Ages of the Sun and the Galaxy:**__ Although all the planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun, the Sun is actually revolving around the centre of the galaxy at 4,800 meters per second, but at this rate it will still take 200 million years for it to go all the way round. You may think the Sun us old at 5 billion years old, but the Milky Way galaxy itself is more than 13 billion years old. The oldest star in the Milky Way is 13.2 billion years old, almost as old as the galaxy itself.

Scientist believe that in 3 billion years the Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. This collision will of course be massive, then over 1 billion years they will form a elliptical galaxy. It is also known that in a few hundred million years our galaxy will swallow the nearby Sagittarius dwarf galaxy.
 * __A Massive Collision:__**

This page was put together and brought to you by Erica Musgrove, Cassie Cornale and Daniel Mills from Irymple Secondary College, Australia.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galaxy.html http://www.galaxydynamics.org/tflops.html http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/MW.html http://messier.obspm.fr/more/mw.html http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/Milkyway.html http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/G/Galaxy.html
 * __Bibliography__**
 * Thanks to all these sites for their useful information!**