01Size211,400 lyDist2.51 million ly
Andromeda
Our nearest large galactic neighbour — and our future collision partner.
GalaxyCosmos
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ESO / Y. Beletsky
Milky Way Galactic centre Distance from Earth
Distance from Earth
26,002 ly
2.03×
farther from Earth
Distance from Earth
52,850 ly
Milky Way is roughly 2.03× farther from Earth than Galactic centre.
Picture this
If the Milky Way were shrunk to the size of France, the entire Solar System would fit inside a coin.
By weight
The visible stars are just a few percent of the Milky Way's total mass. The rest — around 90% — is invisible dark matter.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy about 100,000 light-years across. Our Sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars in it, riding a quiet arm called Orion. At the very centre is Sagittarius A* — a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of the Sun.
Did you know?
We cannot see the Milky Way's centre with visible light — interstellar dust blocks the view. Infrared and radio telescopes are what proved Sagittarius A* is there.
Last updated 2026-05-17
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Scale
A spiral of roughly 200 billion stars — including ours.
Size
105,700 ly
Tap a dot to preview it. Use the Open stop link to read its full page. Stops are arranged from smallest on the left to largest on the right.
Our nearest large galactic neighbour — and our future collision partner.
Our local galaxy cluster — one of thousands in the universe.
The supercluster of galaxy clusters our Milky Way lives inside.