The speeds of the planets around the Sun are only a small fraction of the Solar System’s motion through the Milky Way galaxy, with even Mercury’s revolution around the Sun contributing only Even at that rate, it takes about 250 million years to travel once around the Milky Way. The last time our 4.5-billion-year-old planet was in this same spot, continents fit together differently The Milky Way is a pretty typical barred spiral galaxy. Our sun is in the disk, on a minor outcropping of one of the spiral arms. It orbits in the same direction as all the disk stars once every The Greek name for the Milky Way (Γαλαξίας Galaxias) is derived from the Greek word for milk (γάλα, gala). One legend explains how the Milky Way was created by Heracles (Roman Hercules) when he was a baby. His father, Zeus, was fond of his son, who was born of the mortal woman Alcmene. Using infrared images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way's elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Previously, our galaxy was thought to possess four major arms. The annotated artist's concept illustrates the new view of the Milky Way. 1TlhSr.

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