 A galaxy is a large collection of stars, which are held together by their mutual gravity and dark matter.
Our sun is contained within a Spiral Galaxy, called the "Milky Way" and is just one out of a 100 billion other stars.
The core of our galaxy contains all the older yellow stars surrounded by a nursery, where young stars form and are born. The further you travel out from the centre of the galaxy, the older the stars that are found.
The Earth's sun is located three-quarters the way out towards the edge of our galaxy and is therefore quite old.
 The Milky Way Galaxy has four major arms stretching out from its centre, with minor arms extending from them.
Our Sun is located between the Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm in the Milky Way, in a minor arm called the Orion spiral arm, so named for its proximity to the stars in the Orion constellation.
There is speculation that the minor Orion Arm, which includes our Solar System and Earth, is a branch of the Perseus Arm, but this is unconfirmed
The Orion Arm is situated about two-third away from the center of our Galaxy.
|
 Viewed side on, the Milky Way in
the night sky looks like a long line with a concentration of stars in the middle, as if you were looking at a fried egg side on.
Almost all the stars visible to the naked eye are in our galaxy, and there are billions of other galaxies like our own in the Universe.
|
|
|
Navigation |
Step 2: Galaxies |
