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To: Elsiejay

The Milky Way Galaxy, like most other galaxies, is a clump of stars and gas arranged in the form of a disk that has diameter of about 160,000 light years. The sun is located about 26,000 light years from the center of the disk.

If we look along the plane of the disk, we see dense arrays of stars. This is the equivalent of looking edgewise at a computer disk or an old LP record. If we look outward from the disk (perpendicular to its plane), we see mostly empty sky. This is the perspective of a bug sitting on the record and looking up.


10 posted on 09/02/2013 1:37:33 PM PDT by haroldeveryman
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To: haroldeveryman

Oops well i got the gist...


12 posted on 09/02/2013 2:22:16 PM PDT by abigail2
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To: haroldeveryman

I think I got it, sorta. Thanks for trying. Are Polaris, the Dippers, the two Ursas, et cetera, in the Milky Way?.


14 posted on 09/02/2013 3:28:25 PM PDT by Elsiejay
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