Galaxy
Milky Way
Barred spiral galaxy (SBbc)
Our home galaxy
The Sun is one of 100–400 billion stars in the Milky Way, located about 26,000 light-years from the centre in the Orion Arm. On dark nights its disk appears as a glowing band across the sky.
Key facts
Distance
Galactic centre ~26,000 light-years
Diameter
~100,000 light-years
Stars
100–400 billion
Age
~13.6 billion years
Did you know
- The Sun takes ~230 million years to orbit the galactic centre.
- A supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, lies at its core.
- Light pollution hides it from about a third of humanity.
