The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 100,000 and 180,000 light - years. The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100 -- 400 billion stars. There are probably at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way. The Solar System is located within the disk, about 26,000 light - years from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of one of the spiral - shaped concentrations of gas and dust called the Orion Arm. The stars in the inner ≈ 10,000 light - years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The very center is marked by an intense radio source, named Sagittarius A *, which is likely to be a supermassive black hole.
what's the diameter of the milky way
between 100,000 and 180,000 light - years