Milky Way Galaxy

From our perspective on Earth, the Milky Way appears as a faint band of milky light arching across the sky, which explains its name. This feature marks the central disk of our galaxy, viewed edge-on.

The Milky Way is a massive barred spiral galaxy containing hundreds of billions of stars, including our Sun, arranged in a rotating disk about 100,000 light-years across.

History

From our perspective on Earth, the Milky Way appears as a faint band of milky light arching across the sky, which explains its name. This feature marks the central disk of our galaxy, viewed edge-on.

Points of Interest

Residents

See Also