Overview:
The Milky Way is a barred
spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies. Although the Milky
Way is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, the Galaxy has
special significance to humanity as it is the home galaxy of the Solar System.
The plane of the Milky Way galaxy is visible from Earth as a band of light in
the night sky, and it is the appearance of this band of light which has
inspired the name for our galaxy. Some sources hold that, strictly speaking,
the term Milky Way should refer exclusively to the observation of the band of
light, while the full name Milky Way Galaxy, or alternatively the Galaxy should
be used to describe our galaxy as an astrophysical whole. It is unclear how
widespread the usage of this convention is, however, and the term Milky Way is
routinely used in either context.
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