21st Century Astronomy
21st Century Astronomy
6th Edition
ISBN: 9780393428063
Author: Kay
Publisher: NORTON
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Chapter 20, Problem 2QP
To determine

Detailed observations of the structure of the Milky Way are difficult.

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The Andromeda Galaxy is 2 million light years away from the Milky Way.  How far away is the Andromeda Galaxy?
The diameter of our disk-shaped galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 1.0×105light-years. The distance to the Andromeda galaxy, which is the spiral galaxynearest to the Milky Way, is about 2.5 million light-years. If a scale modelrepresents the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies as dinner plates 20 cm indiameter, determine the distance between the centers of the two plates.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a small satellite galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. It is currently orbiting the Milky Way at a distance of about 160,000 light-years from the galactic center at a velocity of about 300 km/s. Use these values in the orbital velocity law to get an estimate of the Milky Wayʹs mass. (The value you obtain is a fairly rough estimate because the orbit of the Large Magellanic Cloud is elliptical, not circular.)
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