20+ Interesting Milky Way Facts for Kids

What Is Milky Way?

Milky Way, in simple terms, is a collection of celestial bodies like stars, planets, asteroids, comets, and other objects in space. As 9 planets that revolve around the sun form a solar system, many such solar systems all together make a Milky Way.
Milky Way is a Galaxy. Galaxies consist of millions of stars and millions of Galaxies from the Universe.
Milky Way Galaxy appears like the dusty milky stretch of a belt in the clear sky. It also consists of particle-shaped stars, which, of course, are light-years far from the earth and are not clearly visible.
No wonder many nations are yet fighting to reach mars; you might think that how we humans have so much information about galaxies. Well, the most interesting Milky Way facts for kids is every study is based on assumptions, it takes decades for a kid to learn that every discovery is based on the observation in the sky using a telescope and ultrasonic waves.
The distance and the material on the surface of planets are discovered based on SONAR using ultrasonic Waves.
The Shape of the Milky Way Galaxy is a Barred Spiral; the age is over 13 Billon years. The Milky way consists of 200 billion stars like the sun.

Fascinating Milky Way Facts for Kids

Milky Way has a different name as per the country and mythology. Milky Way was termed as per Greek Mythology, which says that one of the goddesses spread milk over the sky and is how we know it as the milky way.
In China, Milky Way is known as the “Silver River”, and in the deserts of Africa, people call it the “Backbone of Night.”
The most surprising Milky Way facts for kids is Milky Way galaxy, with 200 billion Stars, is a medium-sized Galaxy. The largest Galaxy discovered ‘IC 1101’ contains 100 trillion stars.
90% of the matter of the Milky Way galaxy isn’t Luminous; as a result, we see 10% of visible objects (mostly Stars, because Stars are only Luminous Celestial Bodies) in Sky at night. This 90% of matter is nothing but gases and dust.
One more Milky Way Facts for Kids is Milky Way also has its own centre of the Milky Way galaxy is termed Sagittarius A, which is also called a black hole. The estimated diameter of this black hole is 14 million miles.
Every Celestial Body has its own Gravitational force. As a galaxy, Milky Way also had its own center and gravitational force.
The existing milky way gets this big size and shape by swallowing many small galaxies around it.
One surprising Milky way facts for kids is that no proof of the Milky Way’s shape and size has been recorded so far. On the basis of the observation over a period of time, the shape and size of the Milky Way galaxy are assumed with some factual data.
The Image we see for the entire Milky Way Galaxy is a pictorial representation and not the actual picture of the Galaxy.
Well, you might be surprised when unforeseen Milky Way facts for Kids come into the picture that the age of the Milky Way Galaxy is almost the same as the Age of the Universe.
The universe’s age is expected to be 13.7 billion years, whereas that of the Milky Way is 13.6 billion years.
Just like our planet earth revolves around the sun, the Galaxy is also on the move. The Milky Way is moving at speed of 600 Kms per second.

When Does Milky Way Appear In The Sky?

There is no specific dates or time to see or when the milky way appears in the sky. The Milky Way galaxy can be viewed with naked eyes anytime at night in the sky, the only condition is open and the pollution void should not spoil the view.
The Milky way is not like a comet that appears once in a year or like asteroids that can be found between two planets. Milky Way is a galaxy that is not stationary but looks like something steady.
The only factor which matters here is the rotation of the earth. Because of the rotation and revolution of the earth, the Galaxy
Milky Way would be observed in different parts of the world in different shapes and sizes.
There are few spots on earth to witness the clear and beautiful view of the galaxy Milky Way.

Position of the Earth & The Sun in the Milky Way

The position of the Sun in the Milky Way is around a corner, and as the shape of the galaxy milky way is elliptical/spiral, the distance of the sun from the galactic center (center of galaxy milky way) is around 26,000 Light years.
The distance between the sun and earth is 151.7 million Kilometres. So, the position of Earth and Sun from the galactic center is more or less the same, which is around 26000 light-years.

What does Galaxy Milky Way Consists of?

As we saw above, most of the matter in the Milky Way is nonluminous, which consists of gases and dust. There are only stars that are visible through naked eyes.
As the earth and other planets and their satellites, due to the sun’s lights, seems luminous, the same fundamental works in all solar system in the Milky way galaxy. Luminous objects consist of Stars, Planets, and other big masses.
One of the astonishing Milky Way facts for Kids is, as per NASA’s reports, the mass in the Milky Way Galaxy is around 1.5 Trillion solar masses, including everything.
As we see, there are 200 billion stars in a milky way; scientists divided the group of masses into three subcategories.
They are known as Global Clusters, Open Clusters, and Stellar Associations. These groups are categorized on the basis of the numbers and age of the group of stars.
Similar to our solar system, there are many other objects or masses which aren’t categorized and are present in the galaxy milky way are moving groups, emission nebulae, planetary nebulae, supernova remnants, dust clouds, Interstellar medium, etc.
One of the most recognized components of the galaxy is the one that forms the galaxy milky way, that is, the companion galaxies. As we see earlier, the Milky way consumed other small galaxies around it, and that is now part of the milky way.