The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that contains our solar system. Our solar system is located about 25,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way, in one of its spiral arms. The Milky Way is estimated to contain around 100 billion stars, and it is just one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe.
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| Comparison of the night sky with the night sky of a hypothetical planet within the Milky Way 10 billion years ago, at an age of about 3.6 billion years and 5 billion years before the Sun formed.(source : Wikipedia) |
The Milky Way is shaped like a disk, with a bulge in the center and spiral arms extending outwards. The Sun, along with the rest of the solar system, orbits around the center of the Milky Way once every 230 million years or so.
The Milky Way has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years, and it is estimated to be about 13.6 billion years old. Our solar system, on the other hand, is only about 4.6 billion years old.
The Milky Way is home to a wide variety of celestial objects, including stars, planets, asteroids, comets, and more. Our solar system contains eight planets, as well as numerous moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets. The Sun is the central star of our solar system, and it provides the energy that allows life to exist on Earth.