Is There a Reference for Average Distance Between Stars in the Milky Way?

-- David | February 18, 2022
Antennae Galaxies

Question:

what is the standard reference or references used to determine the average distance between stars in the milky way galaxy?

-- David

Answer:

I don’t believe that there is a standard reference for the average distance between stars in the Milky Way galaxy as this distance is a rather subjective estimate.  As noted in the answer to a previous question on this blog, the average distance between stars in the Milky Way is about 5 light years.  Note, though, that this estimate has a large uncertainty.  To understand what makes this estimate so uncertain,  see the nice discussion on Physics StackExchange which describes some of the issues which affect this estimate.

-- Jeff Mangum