What is the Milky Way?

The Milky Way is a huge mass of gas and stars that can be clearly seen as a band of light across the night sky.

The earth and everything else in the Solar System, is part of the Milky Way. It is known as our Galaxy. It is so huge that light takes nearly 100,000 years to travel from one side to another. Where stars are packed close together the Milky Way is bright, but huge clouds of gas and dust block the light from the other parts of the Galaxy. These clouds prevent astronomers from observing the whole Milky Way.