where is our solar system located in the milky way galaxy
Milky Way The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years (ly).[24][25][26] It is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars.[27][28] There are probably at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way.[29][30] The Solar System is located within the disk, 26,490 (± 100) light-years from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust. The stars in the innermost 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The galactic center is an intense radio source known as Sagittarius A*, likely a supermassive black hole of 4.100 (± 0.034) million solar masses.
Milky Way The Milky Way contains between 200 and 400 billion stars[61][62] and at least 100 billion planets.[63] The exact figure depends on the number of very-low-mass stars, which are hard to detect, especially at distances of more than 300 ly (90 pc) from the Sun. As a comparison, the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy contains an estimated one trillion (1012) stars.[64] Filling the space between the stars is a disk of gas and dust called the interstellar medium. This disk has at least a comparable extent in radius to the stars,[65] whereas the thickness of the gas layer ranges from hundreds of light years for the colder gas to thousands of light years for warmer gas.[66][67]