• Question: how long will it take from our solar system in light years to reach the end of the milky way?

    Asked by 433dysb45 to Anna, James, Joe, Leonie, Olivia on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Olivia Lynes

      Olivia Lynes answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Well I didn’t know this one, my knowledge of space is sadly lacking so I looked it up, and found this answer.

      The solar system travels at an average speed of 515,000 miles per hour (828,000 kilometers per hour). Even at this rapid speed, the solar system would take about 230 million years to travel all the way around the Milky Way.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Hi 433dysb45,

      To quote a Monty Python song that is accurate!

      “It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side
      It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick
      But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide”

      We are about 30,000 light years from the middle (Galactic central point), so it would (at the speed of light) take us 80,000 years to get to the far side of our galaxy edge or (just) 30,000 years to reach our nearest edge.

    • Photo: Joe Spencer

      Joe Spencer answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      James is pretty spot on, Milky way is about 100,000 light years across, and we’re actually quite close to the edge already, about 30,000 light years away.

Comments