How does our Solar System compare in size to the Milky Way?
Question:
Answer:
The Milky Way galaxy is about 80 million times bigger than our solar system.
about like the size of a flea as compared to an elephant.
Our solar system is one of billions inside the Milky Way galaxy, so it's very small in comparison.
our galaxy is the milky way
and our solar system is very, very, very, very, very tiny compared to the milky way
note the very tiny
it's like compairing a flashlight to the sun... the milky way is our galaxy... and since a galaxy consists of uncountable amounts of solar systems, i'd have to say that our solar system is much smaller than the milky way
If by "the Milky Way" you mean the Milky Way Galaxy, think about seeing a picture of the milky way in your mind's eye - there are so many billions and trillions of stars that you can't even begin to make them out. Our sun is ONE of those, and our planet is TINY compared to the sun. So there you go.
fill bucket with sand. now pick up one grain and mark it with bright green paint so you can find it. place back in bucket. mix thoroughly. now reach into bucket at random and select grain of sand. repeat until you find the green grain. that's how big the solar system is in relation to the milky way.
we are nothing but a little dot compared to our universe like the hair on a flea compared to our planet its not even funny how small our solor system and planet are compared to anything on a grander scale. as a matter of fact our galaxy probably isnt very large on the scale of the entire universe so were not very special lol. but then on that note nothing can effect everything and that not whats important just effecting whats around you (in a good way).
Our solar system is 8.9 light hours in diameter. The galaxy is 100,000 light YEARS in diameter.
Our solar system is 1/100,000,000 the diameter of our galaxy. It's about like comparing an orange to the size of the earth.
FYI, derek, our solar system is NOT the milky way. Our solar system has a diameter of about 9.2 billion miles (rounding 1 AU to 93 million miles and doubling the apogee of Pluto, then rounding to the nearest 100 million miles). The Milky Way has a diameter of 80,000-100,000 light years, and a light year is about 5.9 trillion miles. Therefore, the diameter of the MW is roughly 472-590 quadrillion miles, making the MW around 50 million times larger than our solar system.
Disclaimer: if anyone wants to check my numbers, that's fine, don't quibble with me because I missed an order of magnitude. I don't double check unless someone pays me.
Pluto is 39.5 AU from the sun. One AU is 93,000,000 miles. So Pluto orbits about 3,673,500,000 miles from the sun. That puts the diameter of the solar system at about twice that - about 7 billion miles.
Of course that doesn't include the oort cloud, but we'll ignore that for now.
7 billion miles is about 1/800th of a light year.
The Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. That's 186 000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 x 100000 miles. Big number. The solar system is 1/800th of a light year across. So the solar system is 1/800,000,000th of the milky way.
Or if you like, there are 200,000,000 stars in the milky way. The solar system is 1/200,000,000th of that.
A good comparison can be had via a scale model. If the distance from the earth to the sun was 1 inch, then our solar system would be about 2 yards across. The Milky Way galaxy will then be about 100,000 miles across.
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