How Much Does the Milky Way Weigh?
New measurements suggest that our galaxy is on the slimmer side, at a mere 700 billion times the mass of the sun.
Want to start a fight between astrophysicists who study the Milky Way? Ask them to tell you how much the galaxy weighs.
Now, a new modeling method by researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, may help put those debates to rest.
According to the new work, presented May 31 at a Canadian Astronomical Society conference in Winnipeg, the Milky Way contains the same amount of mass as 700 billion suns—and that puts it on the slimmer side of the scale. At the same time, our galaxy seems to contain slightly more dark matter than previously calculated. This mysterious invisible substance is thought to exist in a cloud around the Milky Way.
Figuring out how much the Milky Way currently weighs can
