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Wikipedia says the stellar disc of the Milky Way is 1,000 light-years thick and cites http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980317b.html http://im
by AngryParsley 16y ago
Wikipedia says the stellar disc of the Milky Way is 1,000 light-years thick and cites http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980317b.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980317b.... . The core is thicker. Even the image on the page you linked to shows an object that is much thicker than a piece of paper.
- ars 16y agoDid you miss the part where I said: "Depending on how you define the thickness" ? The milky way does not have a clear cut end, so you need some kind of definition on where to stop, and there are many ways to do so. And you should stop estimating thickness by looking at photos. Brightness often masquerades as thickness in photos.
- gjm11 16y agoYes, there are many definitions. None of them, however, gives the result that the Milky Way is flatter than a piece of paper. Not even the (rather silly) one used by the author of the web page you quoted; his numbers are wrong.