Milky Way
Our home galaxy
A barred spiral galaxy containing 100–400 billion stars. The Sun orbits its center once every 225 million years.
Image: ESO / B. Tafreshi
Vital statistics
Type
Barred Spiral
Diameter
~100,000 light-years
Stars
100–400 billion
Central black hole
Sagittarius A*
Age
~13.6 billion years
Did you know
We orbit at 828,000 km/h around the galactic center.
Fact 01
Will collide with Andromeda in ~4.5 billion years.
Fact 02
Contains at least 100 billion planets.
Fact 03
Research & publications
Jump straight into peer-reviewed papers, preprints and authoritative references for Milky Way.
arXiv (preprints)
Open-access preprints in physics & astrophysics.
NASA ADS
The definitive bibliographic database for astronomy.
Google Scholar
Cross-publisher academic search.
Nature
Peer-reviewed articles in Nature & sister journals.
Wikipedia
Encyclopedic overview & onward references.
Tip: ask the Research AI for a curated reading list → /research
