The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy approximately 1,000,000 light-years across. At its center, we find a core consisting of old stars. From this center, the spiral arms of the galaxy extend far into space. Here, new stars are constantly born. Seen from the side, our galaxy appears as a flat disk made of numerous open star clusters. Seen from the Earth, the Milky Way extends across the celestial sphere as a bright, belt-shaped nebula.
