Definitions for Milky Way
milky way

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Milky Way, Milky Way Galaxy, Milky Way Systemnoun

   the galaxy containing the solar system; consists of millions of stars that can be seen as a diffuse band of light stretching across the night sky

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Milky Waynoun

   The Milky Way Galaxy, the galaxy in which Earth is located; extension of the night sky phenomenon.

2. Milky Waynoun

   A broad band of diffuse white light, visible in the night sky; our view of the dense portions of the Milky Way Galaxy from inside the galaxy.

3. Etymology: A calque of Via Lactea.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Milky-waynoun

   The galaxy.

   Etymology: milky and way.

   The milky-way, or via lactea, is a broad white path or track, encompassing the whole heavens, and extending itself in some places with a double path, but for the most part with a single one. Some of the ancients, as Aristotle , imagined that this path consisted only of a certain exhalation hanging in the air; but, by the telescopical observations of this age, it hath been discovered to consist of an innumerable quantity of fixed stars, different in situation and magnitude, from the confused mixture of whose light its whole colour is supposed to be occasioned. It passes through the constellations of Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Aquila, Perseus, Andromeda, part of Ophiucus and Gemini, in the northern hemisphere; and in the southern it takes in part of Scorpio, Sagittarius, Centaurus, the Argo Navis and the Ara. The galaxy hath usually been the region in which new stars have appeared; as that in Cassiopeia, which was seen in A.D. 1572; that in the breast of the Swan, and another in the knee of Serpentarius; which have appeared for a while, and then become invisible again. John Harris.

   Nor need we with a prying eye survey
   The distant skies to find the milky-way:
   It forcibly intrudes upon our sight. Thomas Creech, Manilius.

   How many stars there must be, a naked eye may give us some faint glimpse, but much more a good telescope, directed towards that region of the sky called the milky-way. George Cheyne.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Milky Way

   The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλακτικός κύκλος (galaktikos kýklos), meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated D25 isophotal diameter of 26.8 ± 1.1 kiloparsecs (87,400 ± 3,590 light-years), but only about 1,000 light years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulge). Recent simulations suggest that a dark matter area, also containing some visible stars, may extend up to a diameter of almost 2 million light-years (613 kpc). The Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which form part of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster.It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and at least that number of planets. The Solar System is located at a radius of about 27,000 light-years (8.3 kpc) from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The Galactic Center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar masses. Stars and gases at a wide range of distances from the Galactic Center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per second. The constant rotational speed appears to contradict the laws of Keplerian dynamics and suggests that much (about 90%) of the mass of the Milky Way is invisible to telescopes, neither emitting nor absorbing electromagnetic radiation. This conjectural mass has been termed "dark matter". The rotational period is about 212 million years at the radius of the Sun.The Milky Way as a whole is moving at a velocity of approximately 600 km per second with respect to extragalactic frames of reference. The oldest stars in the Milky Way are nearly as old as the Universe itself and thus probably formed shortly after the Dark Ages of the Big Bang.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. milky way

   The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy located within the local group of galaxies. It is one of the billions of galaxies in the universe and contains our solar system. The Milky Way is comprised of billions of stars, gas, and dust bounded together by gravity, forming a disk-like structure. It's named "Milky Way" because of its hazy, milky appearance in the night sky. It measures about 100,000 light years in diameter and its structure is thought to consist of a central bulge, a flat disk with spiral arms, and a surrounding halo.

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Milky Way

   The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky, in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The term "Milky Way" is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος. The Milky Way appears like a band because it is a disk-shaped structure being viewed from inside. The fact that this faint band of light is made up of stars was proven in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to resolve it into individual stars. In the 1920s, observations by astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter containing 100–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets. The Solar System is located within the disk, around two thirds of the way out from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of a spiral-shaped concentration of gas and dust called the Orion Arm. The stars in the inner ≈10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars. The very center is marked by an intense radio source named Sagittarius A* which is likely to be a supermassive black hole. Stars and gas throughout the Galaxy rotate about the center at approximately the same speed, which contradicts the laws of Keplerian dynamics. This indicates that much of the mass of the Milky Way does not emit or absorb electromagnetic radiation; this mass is known as dark matter. The rotational period is about 200 million years at the position of the Sun. The Galaxy as a whole is moving at a velocity of approximately 600 km per second with respect to extragalactic frames of reference. The oldest known star in the Galaxy is about 13.2 billion years old, nearly as old as the Universe. Surrounded by several smaller satellite galaxies, the Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which forms a subcomponent of the Virgo Supercluster.

The Nuttall EncyclopediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Milky Way

   . See Galaxy.

Dictionary of Nautical TermsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. milky way

   See VIA LACTEA.

Matched Categories

1. • Galaxy

How to pronounce Milky Way?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

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   Mark

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   Daniel

   British

   Libby

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   Mia

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   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

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   Priya

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   Neerja

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How to say Milky Way in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Milky Way in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Milky Way in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of Milky Way in a Sentence

1. Eddy M Reyes:

   Hi Cosmos, How is your Milky Way? I miss you.

2. Marius Cautun:

   This phenomenon will generate powerful jets of high energy radiation emanating from just outside the black hole, while this will not affect Solar System, there is a small chance that we might not escape unscathed from the collision between the two galaxies which could knock us out of Milky Way and into interstellar space.

3. Chris Harrison:

   There is a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way, there is now good evidence that this black hole has driven large amounts of energy into the galaxy in the past, through the so-called ‘Fermi Bubbles,’ as well as other evidence. It is likely that billions of years ago the Milky Way was forming stars much more rapidly and the black hole may have played a role in shutting this down. However, this is not well understood. It is worth pointing out that the galaxies where we believe supermassive black holes have had the most influence are ‘dead’ with little-to-no stars forming. In contrast, the Milky Way is still forming stars (around one per year).

4. Paul Byrne:

   Think of like a Milky Way bar or a Mars bar, its where the chocolate and caramel touch, that depth, you can treat that as the thickness of the brittle, rigid layer.

5. Marcel Neeleman:

   Most galaxies that we find early in the universe look like train wrecks because they underwent consistent and often' violent' merging, these hot mergers make Milky Way difficult to form well-ordered, cold rotating disks like we observe in our present universe.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Milky Way
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Milky_Way
3. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=Milky Way
4. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=Milky Way
7. ^ The Nuttall Encyclopedia
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12342/pg12342-images.html#MilkyWay
8. ^ Dictionary of Nautical Terms
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26000/pg26000-images.html#:~:text=Milky Way