Science Fact Finder | Space - What Is The Milky Way?

What is the Milky Way?

The Milky Way is a hazy band of light that can be seen arcing across the night sky This light comes from the stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy, the galaxy to which the sun, the Earth, and our entire solar system belong. The Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars possibly one or more black holes, planets, glowing nebulae (clouds), dust, and empty space.

Astronomers (scientists specializing in the study of matter in outer space) estimate that the Milky Way galaxy is about 80,000 to 100 000 light-years in diameter and 2,000 light-years thick (a light-year is the distance light travels in one year, about 5.9 trillion miles). The Milky Way is classified as a "spiral galaxy"—it is shaped like a phonograph record with a central bulge, or nucleus, and spiral arms curving out from the center.

Sources: The Facts OnFileDictionaryofAstronomy, 3rd ed., p. 283; Hathaway, Nancy. The...

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