The Universe ________________________________________________________________ 15. Our galaxy, the Milky Way
Figure 10.9 The Milky Way. Top viewFigure 10.10 The Milky Way. Side view Our galaxy, Milky Way Galaxy, is a large spiral system consisting of several hundred billion stars, one of which is the Sun. It is a huge collection of stars, dust and gas. It’s called a spiral galaxy because if you could view it from the top or bottom, it would look like a spinning pinwheel.
The Milky Way gets its name from a Greek myth about the goddess Hera who sprayed milk across the sky.
The Sun is located on one of the spiral arms, about 25.000 light-years away from the center of the galaxy. It would take you about 25.000 years to reach the middle of the Milky Way,even if you could travel at the speed of light.
The Earth is just another planet orbiting just another star in a galaxy like many others in the Universe.