Heliocodex

Learn / Outward from here

The Milky Way

On the scale of light: 26,700 light years to its middle. 4 lessons, in the order to read them.

  1. Start hereThe Milky WayOur galaxy is a flat, turning disc of a few hundred billion stars. We live inside it, about half way out, and have never seen it from outside.First look · How it works
  2. The centre of the galaxyThe middle of the Milky Way is hidden behind dust. Seen in other kinds of light, it is a crowd of stars whirling round a black hole of four million Suns.First look · How it works
  3. The stuff between the starsThe space between the stars holds thin gas and a little dust. It is emptier than any vacuum made on the Earth, and it is what every star is made from.First look · How it works
  4. Spiral armsThe arms of a spiral galaxy are not fixed strings of stars. They are patterns that stars pass through, lit up by the young stars born inside them.First look · How it works

Outline Still to be written here

  1. The Magellanic CloudsThe two small galaxies that go round our own, seen from the south.