metadigital Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 The Milky Way Galaxy is about 80-100 thousand light years in diameter, about 3,000 light years in thickness, and about 250-300 thousand light years in circumference. It is composed of 200 to 400 billion stars (exact number not yet known). As a guide to the relative physical scale of the Milky Way, if the galaxy were reduced to 130 km (80 mi) in diameter, the solar system would be a mere 2 mm (0.08 in) in width. ... It would take the solar system about 225-250 million years [9] to complete one orbit ("galactic year"), and so is thought to have completed about 20-25 orbits during its lifetime. The orbital speed is 217 km/s, i.e. 1 light-year in ca. 1400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days. ref OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanschu Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 That's just the solar system too. The planet is roughly half the age of our sun. Though 10-13 ice ages probably isn't that far off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metadigital Posted March 8, 2006 Share Posted March 8, 2006 I don't recall the ice ages being that regularly spaced: I think they are more related to the magnetic poles swapping ... I read a good book setting out the theories, called Timescale:An Atlas of the Fourth Dimension ... OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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