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The Earth
and Beyond Stars Search Questions
Stars - Galaxies - The Universe.
Millions of stars attract each other to form
spiral shapes in space.
These spirals are almost flat with a bulge in the centre.
The spirals are called galaxies.
Many of the stars in a galaxy
will have their own planets
and form their own solar systems.
All of the evidence which we
have about galaxies and stars
a long way away comes from telescopes
pointing out into space
and collecting the electromagnetic waves
which distant objects
emit (give out).
The
Sun is part of
a galaxy called the Milky Way.
The distances between the Sun and the planets are large
but the distance between stars in the same
galaxy
may be millions of times as big.
The nearest star to
the Sun is over four light
years away.
The diameter of the Milky Way is 100,000 light years.
There are
thousands of millions of galaxies
in the Universe
(maybe many more).
The distance between galaxies may be millions of times as
great
as the distance between stars of the same
galaxy.
The nearest galaxy to
the Milky Way is 2 million
light
years away.
This means that when you look at this galaxy
you are seeing it as it was 2 million years
ago
because that is how long the light
took to get here!
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and Beyond Stars Search Questions
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Copyright © 2012 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.