What galaxy do we live in?

Both Earth and the star around which it revolves reside in the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy approximately 100,000 light years in diameter and is home to more than 200 billion stars, many of which are similar to the sun.

Earth and the sun are on one of the spiral arms toward the edge of the Milky Way, about 28,000 light years from the galactic center. This means that light traveling from the center of the galaxy at 186,000 miles per second takes 28,000 years to reach Earth. The Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the known universe.