The Milky Way is the spiral galaxy that contains our solar system. In addition to the Great Magellanic Andromeda Nebula,
Every planet and star seen with the naked eye is part of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is 100,000 light-years in diameter; its maximum thickness is 10,000 light-years. Our Sun is 26,0 from its center
00 light years. It takes 240 million years for the solar system to orbit in one orbit.
If we reduce the diameter of the Milky Way to 100 meters, the diameter of the solar system will look less than 1 millimeter.
The Sun is located on the Orion Arm, a spiral arm of the Milky Way. At the center of the galaxy is an extraordinarily massive black hole.
The mass of a black hole is 4.5 million times greater than that of the Sun. Black holes get their name because their gravity blocks anything, including the escape of light.
The Milky Way is surrounded by a galactic halo made up of ancient stars, dust, and gas.
The Oldest Known Star of the Milky Way is located within this halo; it is 13.2 billion years old.
This means that the milky way is at least 13.2 billion years old, about 500 million years after the Big Bang.