Question

How far is the Earth from the edge of the Milky Way galaxy?

Answer 1

Hint: The galaxy in which our solar system lies is The Milky Way. Scientists have been able to calculate the distance of the Milky Way’s edge from its center. Using the distance of Earth from the center of the Milky Way, we can subtract both values to get the distance between Earth and the edge of the galaxy.

Complete solution:
The Earth forms the part of a solar system consisting of eight planets revolving around the sun. Our solar system lies in the galaxy named the Milky Way. A galaxy is a collection of solar systems. The Milky way contains billions of solar systems.

The galactic center of the Milky Way is the rotational center of the galaxy. It is a huge black hole whose mass is 4 million times the mass of the sun.

It is estimated that the edge of the Milky Way lies about 950,000 light years away from the galactic center while the Earth lies about 26,670 light years away from the galactic center.

Therefore, the distance between the Earth and the Milky Way’s edge will be-
$950,000-26,670=923,330light\,years$

Therefore, the Earth lies about $923,330light\,years$ away from the edge of the Milky Way.

Note:
Light years is an important unit of distance used in astronomy and is defined as the distance which light travels in a year. It is observed that at the edge of a galaxy the velocity of other smaller galaxies sharply declines, so using this phenomenon and results from computer simulations as well as telescopes, the distance to the edge of the galaxy was calculated.