What is the Milky Way?

There is probably nothing more mysterious and wonderful-looking in the sky than the Milky Way, streching like a band of jewels from one end of the sky to the other. In ancient times, when people gazed at this spectacle, they were filled with the wonder and beauty of it just as you are. But scince they didn't really know what it was, they made up all sorts of strange and beautiful explanations of the Milky Way.For example, in early Christian times, people thought it was a pathway for the angels, so they could go up to heaven on it.
Or they imagined it was an opening in the heavens, so that we here on earth could have a glimpse of the glory that existed beyond.Knowing the facts about the milky way, as we do today, dosen't remove any of the wonder of it. The facts are just as amazing as any "made-up" idea!Our galaxy is shaped roughly like a watch, round and flat. If you could get above it and look down on it, it would look like an immense watch. But we are inside the galaxy, and when we loook up we are looking towards the edge from inside the "watch".
So we see that edge curving around us. And since there are millions of Stars in it, we see it as the Milky Way.Did you know that there are at least 3,000,000,000 stars in the galaxy? And here is an idea of its size. It takes eight mintues for light from the sun to reach the earth. For light from the center of the galaxy to reach the sun, it takes about 27,000 years!The galaxy rotates about its center like awheel. From our position in it, it takes about 200,000,000 years just to make mone revolution!