Are ALL of the stars we see in the sky with the naked eye in our gallaxy the Milky Way?

Answer 1

No, they are not. Take, for example, Orion's constellation. In the sword part of his constellation lies a galaxy that is shaped much like the Milky Way, and can be seen even through a low powered telescope as a cluster and not a single star. With the naked eye, however, it looks like a single star.

Answer 2

No.

You can see the Large and Small Magellanic clouds from the southern hemisphere. These are two nearby galaxies and are not part of the Milky Way. Also, from the northern hemisphere it is possible to see the Andromeda spiral galaxy. You need a good, dark, sky and it looks like a fuzzy patch, but it can be seen wth just the naked eye.

Any *star* that you can clearly see as a star will be in the Milky Way galaxy, though.

Answer 3

Yes and No. All the stars u see are. But not all points of light in the sky are stars in the milky way (our galaxy). Some lights you may think are stars, are actually other galxies entirely. Of course those would be made up from billions of other stars, giving the illusion of one small speck of light. Also, if the star appears to be moving, it's either a satellite, or a space vehicle (ie. the shuttle). One other point... if you look at the sky at certain angles, you may detect a line that seems more dense in stars. This is the arm of the milky way that we are in. And since the entire galaxy is sort of squished like a plate, you are looking into the plate, not away from it, so you see many more stars.

Answer 4

All the singlular stars that you can see are in our galaxy - at whats more they are all in our spiral arm of the galaxy - the Orion Arm. The most distant stars you can see with the naked eye on a dark night may be several thousand light years away. However, most are much closer (relativily speaking of course!!!) - in the tens to hundreds of light years. Even the most massivly bright stars - blue giants ,and super giants would not be discernable aas invididual at any great distance. Take Rho Casseopia - that is one of the most massive stars in ourt local area - some 40-50,000 times brighter than our little Sun. However, at a distance of 3400 light years it is a very faint star at the bottom of the right hand point of Casseopia. You can see it with the naked eye, but it is not very easy to spot

The cloudy arm of the milky way we see streaching across the sky as another arm of our galaxy - and you need a telescope to see any individual stars in that.

Kind of gives an idea how big space is when you consider that there may only be one star on average in a volume of space 4x4x4 light years - and out galaxy contains several 100 billion stars!!

Answer 5

Ok, you got several good answers, and a few that were less than "stellar". Lets quantify and define the problem empirically. Given the best observing conditions on the planet (Mauna Kea, or the mountains of Chile) the dimmest object that you can possibly see with the naked eye is no brighter than mag 6.7 (and that's being generous). Given this medical fact concerning human sight we can say with certainty that any individual star that you will ever see must indeed be within our own galaxy.

As others have pointed out, given the right conditions, you can see globular clusters and a few other galaxies, but the theoretical resolving power of the human eye, based solely on the size of its aperture,can be calculated to be approx 20 arc seconds AT BEST!!! Therefore, we can say with mathematical certainty that the human eye is totally unable to resolve individual stars at these distances.

So, to put it all together:"THE HUMAN EYE HAS NEITHER THE SENSITIVITY NOR THE ACUITY TO RESOLVE SINGULAR STARS OUTSIDE OF THE MILKY WAY"

Answer 6

Pretty much every star you can see as a separate star, yes.

In the southern hemisphere you can see the Magellanic Clouds, which are "satellite galaxies" to the Milky Way - whether you call them really separate is a matter of judgement. There are also a few globular clusters of stars which are on the edge of the Milky Way - it's like trying to define exactly when a raindrop leaves a cloud.

You can (barely) see a couple of entirely independent galaxies with the naked eye, most notably the one in Andromeda (M31), but cannot possibly resolve individual stars in them.

Answer 7

Centriliu is right the Andromeda galaxy can be seen with the naked eye. It is near the Great Square of Pegasus and is made up of stars. They are two far away to be seen individually but all together they form a nice view of our sister galaxy. If you live in the city you may not be able to see it with the naked eye due to city lights but it can be seen in the country away from extraneous light..

Answer 8

Yes, and fairly nearby within the galaxy too. The Milky Way is 100,000 light years across, but most of the stars you can see are within a couple thousand light years of Earth.

By the way, the object in Orion's sword (M42) is a nebula, not a galaxy, and is about 1500 light years away in the next arm over in the Milky Way.

Answer 9

Yes, every single star that you can pick out of the night sky with the naked eye is in our galaxy. We can see other galaxies with the naked eye, but not individual stars within them.

Answer 10

Most of them. In the Northern Hemisphere yes. In the Southern Hemisphere you can see stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.