Are most of the stars we see part of our galaxy.?
144725
Yes, almot every star we see is a star from this galaxy. Their are also other galaxies, but we see those only as other points of light, since they are so far away, and five planets that usually glow brighter than the rest of the lights. Also tthe brighter part of the galaxy is just a denser cluster of stars, and we do see it, it's the milky white band we see at night from horizon to horizon, it's called the Milky Way.
845717
An international team of astronomers from France, Italy, the UK and Australia has found a previously unknown galaxy colliding with our own Milky Way. This newly-discovered galaxy takes the record for the nearest galaxy to the centre of the Milky Way. Called the Canis Major dwarf galaxy after the constellation in which it lies, it is about 25000 light years away from thesolar system and 42000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. This i closer than the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, discovered in 1994, which is also colliding with the Milky Way. The discovery shows that the Milky Way is building up its own disk by absorbing small satellite galaxies. The research is to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society within the next few weeks.\n\nThe discovery of the Canis Major dwarf was made possible by a recent survey of the sky in infrared light (the Two-Micron All Sky Survey or "2MASS"), which has allowed astronomers to look beyond the clouds of dust in the disk of the Milky Way. Until now, the dwarf galaxy lay undetected behind the dense disk. "It's like putting on infrared night-vision goggles," says team-member Dr Rodrigo Ibata of Strasbourg Observatory. "We are now able to study a part of the Milky Way that has been previously out of sight".\n\nThe new dwarf galaxy was detected by its M-giant stars =AD cool, red stars that shine especially brightly in infrared light. "We have used these rare M-giant stars as beacons to trace out the shape and location of the new galaxy because its numerous other stars are too faint for us to see," explains Nicolas Martin, also of Strasbourg Observatory. "They are particularly useful stars as we can measure their distances, and so map out the three-dimensional structure of distant regions of the Milky Way disk." In this way, the astronomers found the main dismembered corpse of the dwarf galaxy in Canis Major and long trails of stars leading back to it. It seems that streams of stars pulled out of the cannibalised Canis Major galaxy not only contribute to the outer reaches of the Milky Way's disk, but may also pass close to the Sun.\n\nAstronomers currently believe that large galaxies like the Milky Way grew to their present majestic proportions by consuming their smaller galactic neighbours. They have found that cannibalised galaxies add stars to the vast haloes around large galaxies. However, until now, they did not appreciate that even the disks of galaxies can grow in this fashion. Computer simulations show that the Milky Way has been taking stars from the Canis Major dwarf and adding them to its own disk - and will continue to do so.\n\n"On galactic scales, the Canis Major dwarf galaxy is a lightweight of about only one billion Suns," said Dr. Michele Bellazzini of Bologna Observatory. "This small galaxy is unlikely to hold together much longer. It is being pushed and pulled by the colossal gravity of our Milky Way, which has been progressively stealing its stars and pulling it apart." Some remnants of the Canis Major dwarf form a ring around the disk of the Milky Way.\n\n"The Canis Major dwarf galaxy may have added up to 1% more mass to our Galaxy," said Dr Geraint Lewis of the University of Sydney. "This is also an important discovery because it highlights that the Milky Way is not in its middle age - it is still forming." "Past interactions of the sort we are seeing here could be responsible for some of the exquisite detail we see today in the structure of the Galaxy," says Dr Michael Irwin of the University of Cambridge.
325262
Yes, there are. The overall magnetic field around galaxies is an actively researched subject. The magnetic fiels of compact stars tend to be very large and contribute to the way pulsars act, for example.
650212
The universe encloses all the stars and galaxies...so the answer is...we would see the universe. By the way, if I was that far out there and looking back, I'd be worried about what was sneaking up behind me.
525655
Yes, and I can prove it mathematically:\n\nOur galaxy (the Milky Way) contains at least (by most estimates) 100 billion stars. Now thanks to the Hubble space telescope, we know for a fact that there are other solar systems out there. So let's be conservative and assume that just 1% of the stars in our galaxy have planets in orbit around them.\n\nThat's 1 billion other solar systems.\n\nNow, of those solar systems, let us assume that a further 1% have a planet that is just the right distance from the star to support life.\n\nThat's 10 million planets where life is possible.\n\nAnd if on just 1% of those planets, life actually formed, then there are 1 million planets in our galaxy that have microscopic life on them.\n\nNow let's assume that of that total, 1% have life evolve to any level of significance (creatures with a rudimentary intelligence). \n\nThat gives us 10,000 planets that actually have alien species on them.\n\nAgain, let's go with 1% and say that's the number of planets on which life developed any significant degree of intelligence and formed a civilization.\n\nThe end result is that there are at least 100 planets in our solar system that support life at least as intelligent as we are.\n\nNow, consider that our galaxy is one of an estimated 125 billion galaxies in the universe.\n\nThat gives you over 1 trillion alien civilizations scattered throughout the known universe.\n\nFrankly, it is scientifically impossible that we are the only intelligent species.\n\nAs for whether any of them have made contact with us... no, I don't believe so. You're talking about 100 planets in a galaxy of over 100 billion stars. The odds against any two of us making contact are just too great.
129201
Actually a number of planets and stars are easily visible...but I assume you're being metaphorical, which is perfectly fine.
167324
Yes, it is possible to see a galaxy in a telescope.\n\nDepending on the strength of the telescope, the galaxy will appear very VERY faint and look like a star itself.\nYou probably will not be able to see any with an ordinary telescope in your back yard, or if you do, it will just look like a faint star.
629998
The number of stars in the visible universe is estimated to be 70 sextillion, or 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 [seven followed by twenty-two zeros].\n\nor\n\nWikipedia claims that the observable universe contains about 7 × 1022 stars, organized in about 100 billion galaxies, which themselves form clusters and superclusters. An Ask the Scientist response to this question claimed that there are about 10 billion (10^10) stars in an average galaxy, \nand there are about 10 billion galaxies that we can observe in the universe, so the answer is 100 billion billion or 10^20. I don't think it is an issue that we have a precise answer for as yet.
162380
Most of the stars we see with the naked eye are within our galaxy.  If you lived in the southern hemisphere, you could see the Mangellanic clouds, which are two small satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.  You would not be able to see induvidual stars, but you would see the glow of millions of stars within them.\nIn the northern hemishere, if you are in a very dark place, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy, which is 2.5 million light years away but you can see the glow of the billions of stars that make up that galaxy.\nBut all the induvidual stars we see in the night sky with the naked eye, they are within our Milky Way galaxy.\n\nAnd for stars between galaxies...yes there are.  There are a few stars that get cast off and tossed into intergalactic space.  There is one right now that has been flung out of our galaxy at a bit over a million miles an hour when it had a close encounter with the black hole in the core of our galaxy.  There are millions, perhaps billions, of stars in the galactic halo around the Milky Way...they are just difficult to see, even in a big telescope, as they are mosly dim red dwarfs.  The space between galaxies is not empty...things are just spread out a bit more.
113742
No one can say for certain. Matter of fact we don't know exactly how many stars there are in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Most guestimates for the Milky Way run to about 250-billion stars. Then there are about 250-billion other galaxies in the observable universe, each with more or less 250-billion stars each. A reasonable ball park figure for total number of stars in the observable universe would be approximately---approximately!---   5^22. That's 5 followed by 22 zeros.
715590
Believe it or not, there are.  Sort of.  Simply put, because of the way our eyes work, green stars actually appear white when we look at them.  For a more complete explanation see the following link.\n\n\nhttp://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q72.html
1086790
Yes, there are a few of them, I beleive they are called Quasars, and they fluctuate through the color spectrum. I see one a lot at my camping spot in the summer. I dont have my star chart right now, or i could tell you more about it.
463075
Aliens as we see in our movies, no.  But I wouldn't presume to think that we are the only living creature in our galaxy.  It's only a question of time and where.  Considering the time and distanc involved, we may never meet.
671170
Are you including the stars that are being created, as well as those that do not actually exist anymore but have died out/ supernova'd/ etc. that we are just still seeing since the light has to travel so far?  \n\nI would be interested in how you determined this number ^_^
1022362
Off course scienists investigate this. Our galaxy is pretty flat around where we are - only 3,000 light years wide. It gets thicker then that in the center -16,000 light years but that's still pretty thin compare to it's length - about 100,000 light years across. "above" and "below" us are other stars, possibly with other planets. Basically the same things that are "in front" and "behind" us across the length of the galactic disk. \nOn a very dark night you'll be able to see a bright band across the night sky - that's the Milky Way. You'll then be looking towards the galactic center. The pictures we recive from satelites and telescope come from different directions.\nAs for a 3D model of the universe there is such a project in progress but it deals with objects on a much larger scale - galaxy clusters, superclusters, walls and fillaments.
5355
No one knows.\n\nThere are about 10 planets in our solar system, depending on whom you ask.\n\nAround 100 planets have been detected in other solar systems.\n\nThere are at least 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy (ours).\n\nIf the average number of planets per star is 10, then there are 2000 billion or 2 trillion planets in our galaxy.\n\nNo one knows how many billion galaxies are in the Universe.
1126282
Consider this there are billions upon billions of stars in each galaxy we are just 1 galaxy and there are billions upon billions of galaxy's in the universe. So the question should start with the universe.