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The Milky Way Galaxy - Our Home



A galaxy like the Milky Way as viewed from above
Click on image for diagram (276K JPEG)
European Southern Observatory
The Milky Way galaxy is a giant star-city. Our Sun is one star in the city, and there are many, many others, our neighbors. Our Galaxy looks like a pinwheel - it is a spiral galaxy. There are spiral arms and a bright central part. The Sun is far from the center of the Galaxy. The Sun is going around the center of the Galaxy, and it takes the Earth with it!

In our Galaxy, there are some old stars and some young ones. While the Sun is old compared to you, it is young compared to the Galaxy.

Look at where the Sun is in our Galaxy. There are many more stars in the center part than in the spiral arms where the Sun is. Can you imagine what the sky might look like if our Sun, and the Earth, lived near the center of the Galaxy, our star-city?

Questions and answers about the Milky Way

A Matter of Scale - interactive showing the sizes of things, from very tiny to huge - from NSF


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Last modified January 11, 2006 by Travis Metcalfe.
The source of this material is Windows to the Universe, at http://www.windows.ucar.edu/ at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). © The Regents of the University of Michigan. All Rights Reserved. Site policies and disclaimer