The Milky Way is our galaxy, a barred spiral disc of stars, gas and dust with a black hole at its centre and the Sun far out in its suburbs.
About The Milky Way
Seen from above, the Galaxy is a flat disc with a central bar and bulge, wound with spiral arms where gas gathers and new stars form. A faint halo of old stars and globular clusters surrounds it, and at the very centre lies Sagittarius A*, a black hole whose mass is known from the orbits of stars around it.
We see the disc from inside, edge-on, as the pale band of light across the night sky that gave the Galaxy its name. Dust lying in the plane blocks visible light, so the centre is hidden from optical eyes and has been studied mainly in infrared, radio and X-rays.
What you see in the piece
The galaxy is drawn as a continuous density field of stars and dust, not a picture. From outside, the dust lanes darken the arms; from the Sun, the centre is buried behind them, as it is in reality.
Measured or modelled
The arms, bar, bulge and halo are a model built from published measurements. No one has seen the Milky Way from outside, so its overall shape is inferred.
Questions
What type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
A barred spiral: a disc with spiral arms and a central bar of stars, surrounded by a faint halo.
Why can’t we see the centre of the Milky Way?
Dust in the plane of the disc absorbs visible light, so the centre is hidden from view. Infrared and radio light pass through the dust.