+151 votes
in Astronomy by
edited by

Your answer

Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
+11 votes
by

The Milky Way, our home galaxy, is significantly larger than the sun. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning it has a central bar-like structure with spiral arms extending outward. It consists of billions of stars, along with gas, dust, and other celestial objects.

In terms of size, the Milky Way has a diameter of approximately 100,000 light-years. This means that if you were to travel at the speed of light (which is about 299,792 kilometers per second), it would take you 100,000 years to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other.

On the other hand, the sun is just one of the many stars within the Milky Way. It is a relatively average-sized star, categorized as a G-type main-sequence star or G dwarf star. The sun has a diameter of about 1.4 million kilometers (870,000 miles), which makes it much smaller than the overall size of the galaxy it resides in.

To put it into perspective, the sun's diameter is about 0.001% of the Milky Way's diameter. This comparison illustrates the vast scale of galaxies compared to individual stars within them.

Welcome to Physicsgurus Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of the community.
...