The Milky Way is lighter than we thought

The new results show that the Milky Way, despite its size similar to Tien Nu galaxy, weighs only half of its neighbors.

The extra weight of Tien Nu galaxy is thought to be present in the form of dark matter - (Photo: NASA)

Previously, the Milky Way was thought to have a mass of 3 trillion times our sun.

However, scientists now discover that the Milky Way's actual weight seems lighter than the previous conclusion, only about 800 billion times the sun.

This means that our galaxy is only about half the mass of the nearest neighbor, the galaxies Tien Nu , 2.5 million light-years away.

Both are spiral galaxies and belong to the largest form in the cluster of 54 galaxies called 'Local Groups'.

Experts from the University of Edinburgh (UK) published a new finding on the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The Milky Way is thought to span 120,000 light-years across, classified as the average weight because it contains more than 200 billion stars, compared to the largest galaxy IC 1101, with more than 100 trillion stars.