<P> The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 100,000 and 180,000 light - years . The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100 -- 400 billion stars . There are probably at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way . The Solar System is located within the disk , about 26,000 light - years from the Galactic Center , on the inner edge of the Orion Arm , one of the spiral - shaped concentrations of gas and dust . The stars in the inner ≈ 10,000 light - years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge . The very center is marked by an intense radio source , named Sagittarius A * , which is likely to be a supermassive black hole . </P>
where does the sun lie within the milky way galaxy
about 26,000 light - years from the Galactic Center , on the inner edge of the Orion Arm