The Milky Way

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. This name comes from its appearance as a dim, "milky" glowing band

arching across the night sky. The term "Milky Way" is a translation of the Latin for "milky road", Via Lactea, in turn derived from the

Greek kyklos galaktikos or "milky circle", "milk" also being the root for the Greek word for Galaxy, Γαλαξίας (Galaxias).

Billions of Stars

• The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy 100,000 light years in diameter containing 200–400 billion stars. It is estimated to be about 13.2 billion years old, nearly as old as the Universe.

Local Group

The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are a binary system of giant spiral galaxies belonging to a group of 50 closely bound galaxies known as the Local Group, itself being part of the Virgo Supercluster