Milky Way Galaxy

Large spiral galaxy (roughly 150,000 light-years in diameter) that contains Earth's solar system. It includes the multitude of stars whose light is seen as the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band that encircles the sky defining the plane of the galactic disk. The Milky Way system contains hundreds of billions of stars and large amounts of interstellar gas and dust.

Because the dust obscures astronomers' view of many of its stars, large areas could not be studied before the development of infrared astronomy and radio astronomy (&see; radio and radar astronomy). Its precise constituents, shape, and true size and mass are still not known. It contains large amounts of dark matter and a massive black hole at its core (&see; Sagittarius A). The Sun lies in one of the Galaxy's spiral arms, about 25,000 light-years from the centre.