It is essential for students to know that:
The Sun is a star in the Milky Way galaxy located in a spiral arm about two-thirds of the way from the center of the galaxy.
Galaxies are made up of gas, dust, and billions of stars and have different shapes –
elliptical - spherical or flattened disks,
spiral– a nucleus of bright stars and two or more spiral arms
irregular – no definite shape
Light Years - measure vast distances in space
Because distances in space are so great that conventional numbers are too large to work with, astronomers use a unit of measurement called
light year to measure the distance to stars and galaxies in space. The distance in one light year is equal to the distance light travel in one year.
The Sun is a star in the Milky Way galaxy located in a spiral arm about two-thirds of the way from the center of the galaxy.
Galaxies are made up of gas, dust, and billions of stars and have different shapes –
elliptical - spherical or flattened disks,
spiral– a nucleus of bright stars and two or more spiral arms
irregular – no definite shape
Light Years - measure vast distances in space
Because distances in space are so great that conventional numbers are too large to work with, astronomers use a unit of measurement called
light year to measure the distance to stars and galaxies in space. The distance in one light year is equal to the distance light travel in one year.
Can you identify all 3 types of galaxies? What kind of galaxy is the Milky Way?
Light we see from distant stars at night may have been traveling for billions of years at 186,000 miles per second!