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SYFY WIRE Bad Astronomy

Crash Course Astronomy: The Milky Way

By Phil Plait
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Every now and again I sit back and think, “We live in a galaxy. A galaxy!

Just being able to think that, and know it’s true, leaves me in awe. Galaxies are incredible, vast structures, and ours is among the biggest. One hundred thousand light0years across, hundreds of billions of stars, sprawling, majestic spiral arms where millions of stars are being born as we watch … it’s fantastic.

And how we figured it out is half the fun. I’ll tell you all about both our galaxy and the journey to our understanding of it in this week’s Crash Course Astronomy.

Writing these last dozen or so episodes of CCA were so much fun. Each one took a huge step, either in space, time, or concept, and each will expand your brain. Stay tuned, because there’s lots more fun science to be had.

Watch more episodes of Crash Course Astronomy on YouTube!

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