The ancient Greeks were the first to realise that we were just a tiny part of something much, much larger and they called it The Milky Circle. After something of a rebrand, we now know it as The Milky Way. At its center (which is also known as The Bulge) is a supermassive black hold, and that’s why the galaxy is like a spiral. We are 30,000 light years (give or take) away from the center… but did you know that the supermassive black hole has a name? It’s Sagittarius A* (like it’s achieved a very high grade in an exam). You can find out a host of other interesting facts about our galaxy (and a couple of our next door neighbors) by watching this fascinating animated short by the Greenwich Royal Observatory. Although I suspect it is aimed mostly for kids, I do like it when science is explained in a fairly simple way, because that way I can just about keep up! Watch the video below.
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