Milky Way

Galaxy

The barred spiral galaxy containing the solar system, home to at least 100 billion stars.

Facts

TypeGalaxy
Galaxy typeSpiral
Distance from Earth0 ly
Diameter950,000,000,000,000,000 km
Mass2.90 × 10^42 kg
Redshift0
HemisphereBoth
DiscoveredPrehistoric

Milky Way in context

At 950,000,000,000,000,000 km across, Milky Way is 74,556,584,523,623 times the diameter of Earth.

Its mass is 1,458,019,105,078 times the mass of the Sun.

The light reaching us from Milky Way tonight left it around 0 years ago.

Of the 12 galaxys these pages cover, only 0 lie closer to us.

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