All About Astronomy

Where are we in the universe? We live on Earth, the third planet of our solar system.
Our solar system is located in the Milky Way Galaxy, a collection of 200 billion stars
(together with their planetary systems). The Milky Way Galaxy is located in a group
of 30+ galaxies we call the Local Group. The Local Group is a part of a local
supercluster of 100+ galaxies (called the Virgo Supercluster). This supercluster is one
of millions of superclusters in the universe.

Our Solar System

Our solar system consists of the sun, planets, dwarf planets (or plutoids), moons, an
asteroid belt, comets, meteors, and other objects. The sun is the center of our solar
system; the planets, over 61 moons, the asteroids, comets,meteoroids and other rocks
and gas all orbit the Sun. The Earth is the third planet from the sun in our solar
system.

The Planets
The nine planets that orbit the sun are (in order from the
Sun): Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter (the biggest planet in our Solar
System), Saturn (with large, orbiting rings), Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (a dwarf
planet or plutoid). A belt of asteroids (minor planets made of rock and metal) orbits
between Mars and Jupiter. These objects all orbit the sun in roughly circular orbits that
lie in the same plane, the ecliptic (Pluto is an exception; this dwarf planet has an
elliptical orbit tilted over 17 from the ecliptic).
The inner planets (those planets that orbit close to the Sun) are quite different from the
outer planets (those planets that
orbit far from the Sun).
The inner planets are:
Mercury, Venus, Earth,
and Mars. They are
relatively small,
composed mostly of rock, and have few or no
moons.
The outer planets include: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune. They are mostly huge, mostly gaseous, ringed, and have many
moons (plus Pluto, which is a dwarf planet that has one large moon and two
small moons).

Small Bodies
There are other smaller object that orbit the Sun,
including asteroids, comets, meteoroids and dwarf planets.
Asteroids (also called minor planets) are rocky or metallic objects, most of
which orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Comets are small, icy bodies that orbit the sun. They have very long tails.
Meteoroids are small bodies that travel through space. They are stony and/or
metallic and are smaller than asteroids. Most are very tiny.

The Milky Way Galaxy

Our solar system is located in the outer reaches of the Milky Way
Galaxy, which is a spiral galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy contains
roughly 200 billion stars. Most of these stars are not visible
from Earth. Almost everything that we can see in the sky belongs
to the Milky Way Galaxy.

From the Earth,

our Milky Way
Galaxy is visible as
a milky band that
stretches across the
night sky. It is
easier to see when
you are far from
bright city lights.

The sun is about 26,000 light-years from the center of theMilky

Way Galaxy, which is about 80,000 to 120,000 light-years across
(and less than 7,000 light-years thick). We are located on on one
of its spiral arms, out towards the edge. It takes the sun (and our
solar system) roughly 200-250 million years to orbit
once around the Milky Way. In this orbit, we (and the
rest of the Solar System) are traveling at a velocity of about 155 miles/sec
(250 km/sec).

To reach the center of the Milky Way Galaxy starting from

the Earth, aim toward the constellation Sagittarius. If you
were in a spacecraft, during the trip you would pass the
stars in Sagittarius one by one (and many other stars!).
The Milky Way Galaxy is just one galaxy in a group of
galaxies called the Local Group. Within the Local Group,
the Milky Way Galaxy is moving about 300 km/sec
(towards the constellation Virgo). The Milky Way Galaxy
is moving in concert with the other galaxies in the Local
Group (the Local Group is defined as those nearby
galaxies that are moving in concert with each other,
independent of the "Hubble flow" expansion).