How Big Is The Galaxy?
All the stars in the universe are not scattered around randomly but instead are grouped together in clusters called Galaxies. Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes and contain billions of stars. It is said that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world. Our Solar system of the Sun and planets live in a galaxy very similar to this one. We are placed about three quarters of the way out from the center of our Galaxy. We call our galaxy the Milky Way. On a very dark night the Milky Way can be seen stretching across the sky. So, how big is it? It is so big that we cannot measure it in miles or kilometers, the numbers would be mind boggling. Instead we must use another measurement called a light year. What is a light year? If you switch a light on, the light leaves its source and arrives at your eyes instantaneously. Now if you stood 186 thousand miles away or about 2 thirds the distance to the Moon and the light was switched on it would
