
The Milky Way is the galaxy that holds the Earth, Sun and the Solar System. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, which is 100,000 light-years in diameter. Looking from Earth, the Milky Way is seen as a white or pale cloud because our point of view is within the galaxy, and we have to look through the disk of the galaxy to see its centre. The number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy has been estimated by NASA to range between 100 and 400 billion. The Solar System is located halfway between the centre of the galaxy and one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.