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MILKY WAY
With a mass between 750 billion and one trillion solar masses ,and a diameter of 100,000 light years it is a massive object. Investigations of the hydrogen clouds contained within the milky way show us that this galaxy is a spiral galaxy, there are many types of galaxy and they are usually categorized by their shape as elliptical irregular or spiral.
Nearest intergalactic neighbour, a small galaxy currently interacting with our own on the other side of the milky way all though we don't know what effect it has had on the planet earth yet.
Our galaxy has a disk form when viewed from the side (above right), which is 100,000 light years across and 1-2 light years thick, in the centre of the disk lies a thin layer of gas and dust. The galaxy has a spiral shape when viewed from above (above left). It also contains a central bulge or nucleus where a large black hole may be contained. The sun lies in the spiral arm named orion.
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