How far does the Milky Way REALLY extend? Discoveries at the Edge of Our Galaxy | Space Documentary

🌍 Have you ever imagined what lies at the edge of our galaxy? The Milky Way has captivated human eyes since the dawn of time. It remains magnificent and fascinating on a dark night, whether you’re in the middle of the desert or on top of a mountain. On beautiful summer nights, devoid of light pollution, we can follow its path through the celestial vault without even needing an observation instrument. It forms a wispy band around the entire sky. In this band, over 200 billion stars are gathered together. Of these, around 6,000 are detectable without binoculars or telescopes. We’ve known since the 20th century that the Milky Way is our galaxy. This immense disk of stars is made up of a very luminous, compact central region, known as the bulge, and smaller spiral arms. The Milky Way has an estimated diameter of 100,000 light-years and a thickness of over 1,000 light-years. Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered that our galaxy is not simply a spiral galaxy, but a barred spiral galax