What is the Milky Way?

Milky Way Galaxy, a large spiral system consisting of several billion stars, one of which is the Sun. It takes its name from the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band of stars and gas clouds that stretch across the sky as seen from Earth. It was the Greek Democritus (460-370BC) who first claimed that the Milky Way consisted of distant stars. William Herschel in 1785 made the first map of the Milky Way. A thick layer of interstellar dust obscures much of the Galaxy from scrutiny by optical telescopes, and astronomers can determine its large-scale structure only with the aid of radio and infrared telescopes, which can detect the forms of radiation that penetrate the obscuring matter. Estimates of the size of the Milky Way galaxy vary due to a degree of uncertainty in the observations used to make these determinations. Estimates for the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy range from 100,000 light years up to 120,000 light years. As to the size of the galactic bulge that makes up the core of the galaxy, its diameter is estimated at around 30,000 light years in the north-south direction. The diameter in the equatorial plane is estimated to be 40,000 light years.

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