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- THE MILKY WAY: The name of the galaxy in which we live. It
- contains over 200 billion stars. The Milky Way is a SPIRAL
- galaxy, and as such its diameter (approximately 100,000 light
- years) is much greater than its thickness (only 10,000 light
- years at the center).
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- LIGHT YEAR: The distance traversed in one year by a beam of light
- traveling at its space velocity of 186,000 miles per second. This
- is equivalent to 6,000,000,000,000 (6 TRILLION) miles.
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- The following screens illustrate the immensity of the universe
- using this basic cosmic yardstick.
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