Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that is approximately 100,000 to 120,000 light-years in diameter and contains between 200 and 400 billion stars. It is located in the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Andromeda Galaxy and about 54 other galaxies. The Milky Way is thought to have formed about 13.6 billion years ago from an accretion disk around a black hole.
The Milky Way’s central bulge is surrounded by a ring of dust called the Galactic disc. This disc contains most of the galaxy’s stars, gas and dust. The spiral arms of the Milky Way are areas of high density where new stars are being born. Our sun lies in one of these arms, called the Orion Spur. The Milky Way also has two satellite galaxies: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
The study of our galaxy has been ongoing for centuries, with astronomers making increasingly precise measurements of its size, mass, structure and composition. In recent years, advances in technology have allowed us to peer deep into the heart of the Milky Way using powerful telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). These observations have revealed a dynamic and complex galaxy that is still revealing its secrets.