The River of Stars (Milky Way)

The River of Stars, known as the Milky Way, is our galaxy—a vast, spinning collection of billions of stars, gas, and dust. From Earth, it appears as a luminous, cloudy band across the night sky because we view it from within one of its spiral arms. The glowing band is made up of countless stars so close together that they blend into a continuous glow. The Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light-years across, containing our solar system and billions of others, all bound by gravity in a sprawling, rotating cosmic structure.