Where are we located in the Milky Way?

Among the 300 billion stars that are estimated to exist in our maternal galaxy, the Milky Way, it’s difficult to accept that we are even 100 times smaller than a grain of sand in the desert. Imagine it would be impossible if we don’t use examples like this.

But of all those grains of sand… Where are we? To begin with, we must know that in the center of our galaxy, as in all of them, there is a black hole. This gravitational monster that destroys everything in its path is what groups the stars, dust and cosmic remains around forming a wonderful image like the one we see in the photo: a galaxy. The galaxies, however, don’t all have the same shape, but let’s settle for knowing that the Milky Way and our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, yes. Both have a spiral disk shape, although Andromeda is much larger. To give you an idea, it has a trillion stars.

The scientists have created a map of our galaxy that allowed them to know, with enough precision, that the Solar System is located about two thirds of the center of the black hole of the Milky Way, which they called Sagittarius A. That is, we are almost in the limit of the four arms that surround it, punctually in what is called The Arm of Orion.

If we look at the sky, we’ll always see stars from our galaxy. Everything we observe belongs to one of the arms of the spiral. The strip of bright dust that we usually appreciate in photos is only a part of the Milky Way and the stars that aren’t there, too.

Obviously, where there are more stars is at the center of any galaxy.

So, where do you have to look to see more of them? Those of us who live in the southern hemisphere have a huge advantage against those who live in the northern hemisphere. It turns out that the inclination of the axis of rotation of the Earth ended up favoring the southerners, that we’ll always look towards the center of the Milky Way, where there is more light activity, while in the north of the planet, they’ll see outwards, that is to say, a less starry sky.

Either way, whatever position we have, we are the privileged ones of the universe. Thanks to the exact location of the sun and the fortune of having a Moon, no one can take away the most valuable thing that the planet gave us: all the possible life forms that we will probably never find in any corner of the space.