The Milky Way Galaxy is a vast collection of stars, star systems, star clusters, and interstellar clouds of gas and dust. It is a barred spiral galaxy, which means it has a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars.
Our Solar System is situated in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, a region called the Orion Arm. There are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, and the Sun is just one of them.
The Milky Way rotates around its center, a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*.
Quick facts about the Milky Way:
- Barred spiral galaxy.
- Home to hundreds of billions of stars.
- Our Solar System is in the Orion Arm.
- Central supermassive black hole: Sagittarius A*.