The milky way or milky way galaxy[c] is the galaxy that includes the solar system, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from earth: The space between stars is mostly filled with dust and gas, and in the very heart of this system lies a supermassive black hole. Our solar system—which includes the sun, earth, and seven other planets—is part of this galaxy, called the milky way.
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It takes its name from the milky way, the irregular luminous band of. This system is called a “galaxy”. We see only a part of this cosmic.
A hazy band of light seen in the night sky.
The milky way contains hundreds of billions of stars like our sun. The milky way galaxy is our cosmic home. These powerful instruments unveiled an astonishing truth: It’s a vast, dynamic system made of billions of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter, all rotating around a central bulge that hides a supermassive black hole.
Milky way galaxy, large spiral system consisting of several hundred billion stars, one of which is the sun. 23, 2025, photograph from the international space station as it soared 261 miles above southern. Here we explore our galactic neighborhood in more detail. Here the positions of thousands of bright stars are shown in red and blue,.

The milky way appears above earth’s bright atmospheric glow in this aug.
The milky way's great wave illustrated the unexpected galactic ripple is illustrated in this figure above. The milky way is not a mere collection of stars but a galaxy with a graceful spiral shape.