ASK!

Kids ASK! about Science & Technology

There are billions of galaxies in the universe! Each galaxy consists of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity. The galaxy that we are living in is called the Milky Way and it is just one of the billions of galaxies in the universe.

Scientists have predicted that our galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 400 billion stars. Therefore, our solar system is only a tiny part of the Milky Way.

Just imagine – if you are given a chance to travel beyond the Milky Way, how does our Milky Way look like? It will probably look like a gigantic pinwheel with a bright center and a thin disk of stars spiraling outward. Our solar system will only look like a tiny, almost invisible speck.

Source: Berry, R. (2008). Milky Way. The New Book of Knowledge®. Retrieved August 26, 2008, from Grolier Online http://nbk.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2019280-h

Read more about galaxies and the Milky Way:

The Milky Way and other galaxies by Dana Meachen Rau
Call Number: J 523.1 RAU

Earth’s journey through space by Trudy E. Bell
Call Number: Y 525 BEL

Space by Alan Dyer
Call Number: J 520 DYE

Astronomy: every galaxy has a black hole by Bryson Gore
Call Number: J 520 GOR

Galaxies by Dan Elish
Call Number: J 523.1 ELI

For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue. 

All websites were last accessed on 26 August 2008. All images were extracted from www.bn.com.

Originally answered by Azizah Osman, Librarian, Children’s Services.

Posted by Adeline Tan, Librarian, Children’s Services.

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