Jul 31, 2024, 08:59 AM IST
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured stunning images of the Milky Way, revealing its intricate structure and beauty.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, which means it has a central bar-shaped structure made up of stars.
It is estimated that the Milky Way has around 100 to 400 billion stars, including our Sun.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected high-energy X-rays coming from the center of the Milky Way, indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole.
The galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter and about 1,000 light-years thick.
The Milky Way is part of a group of galaxies known as the Local Group, which also includes the Andromeda Galaxy.
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has observed star-forming regions within the Milky Way, revealing the birth of new stars.