Absolutely Every Bit of Our Galaxy
Astronomers have arrived at what they believe to be the most accurate measure yet of the mass of the Milky Way: about 4.8 x 1011 times the mass of the sun, or “solar masses,” to use a standard unit of mass in astronomy. This comes to about 9.5 x 1041 kilograms — that is, 95 followed by 40 zeros….