The disk of the Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter (one light year is about 9.5 x 1015 meters), but only about 1000 light years thick. Our Galaxy contains about 200 billion stars. Most of the stars are located in the disk of our galaxy, which is the site of most of the star formation because it contains lots of gas and dust. The halo, which is a spherical cloud surrounding the disk, contains only about 2% as many stars as the disk. It contains old and cool stars, since it has little gas and dust.
Artist's Rendering Of Kepler's Target Region In The Milky Way
An artists rendering of what our galaxy might look as viewed from outside our Galaxy. Our sun is about 25,000 light years from the center of our galaxy. The cone illustrates the neighborhood of our galaxy that the Kepler Mission will search to find habitable planets. Credit: Jon Lomberg.
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