NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Milky Way is a galaxy -- a huge group of stars and other objects in space. The Milky Way includes the sun, the Earth, and the rest of our solar system. It also includes hundreds of billions of stars. Huge clouds of dust and gases lie throughout the galaxy.

Image to left: The Milky Way galaxy is shaped like a disk with a bulge in the center. This photo was taken by a camera mounted on a satellite. Credit: NASA

Part of the Milky Way galaxy can be seen without looking through a telescope. On clear, dark nights, it appears as a broad, milky-looking band of starlight stretching across the sky.

The Milky Way is shaped like a pancake with a bulge, or bump, in the center. Stars, dust, and gases fan out from the central bulge in long, curving arms that form a spiral, or coiled, pattern.

How to cite this article: To cite this article, World Book recommends the following format: "Milky Way." The World Book Student Discovery Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 2005.

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