Milky Way - The Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that contains our solar system. It is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe. The galaxy is estimated to be about 100,000 to 120,000 light-years in diameter and contains about 100 to 400 billion stars.

Interesting Facts

• The Milky Way is home to about 200 billion stars.
• The center of the Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A*.
• The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and is expected to collide with our galaxy in about 4 billion years.

Images

Milky Way

Sagittarius A*

Learn More

For more information about the Milky Way, you can visit our Astronomy section.

Andromeda Galaxy