Our galaxy is flat, other spiral galaxies are flat, and they're really flat. Milky Way is about 100 times as wide as across as it is thick. That's way thinner than a pancake. So you get these shapes when that happens. And by the way, all disks are made that way. The quiescent disk, the disk that form around black holes. Yeah, it's a general phenomenon in the galaxy.
What if the solar system had two suns? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice give a sneak peek into our patron-only Q&As with questions about the three body problem, galaxy formation, the alpha centauri system, and more.
NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://startalkmedia.com/show/moonmoons-gravitons-and-more/
Thanks to our Patrons Donald Jones, Mohammed Taha Faridi, Jon Barnett, Harmon Dhaliwal, and Sean Griffen for supporting us this week.
Photo Credit: Elmi1966, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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