The first two are easy to grasp but.
Planet earth solar system milky way galaxy.
Let s look at the basics.
Our solar system is just one specific planetary system a star with planets orbiting around it.
There is evidence that extragalactic planets exoplanets farther away in galaxies beyond the local milky way galaxy may exist.
We live on a planet called earth that is part of our solar system.
Galaxies like solar systems are held together by gravity.
A galaxy is held together by gravity.
A galaxy is a system of solar systems and other stars.
The average diameter of the orbit of the solar system relative to the galactic center.
One orbital period of the solar system lasts between 225 and 250 million years.
That s just how many we ve found so far.
The sun s orbital radius is roughly 8 600 parsecs or slightly over half way to the galactic edge.
It s a small part of the milky way galaxy.
A galaxy is a huge collection of gas dust and billions of stars and their solar systems.
Our milky way galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
Our solar system consists of our star the sun and its orbiting planets including earth along with numerous moons asteroids comet material rocks and dust our sun is just one star among the hundreds of billions of stars in our milky way galaxy.
But where is our solar system.
Orbit of the solar system.
14 15 the nearest exoplanets are located 4 2 light years 1 3 parsecs from earth and orbit proxima centauri the closest star to the sun.
The minor arms are primarily filled with gas and pockets of star forming activity.
The milky way galaxy the major arms consist of the highest densities of both young and old stars.
This galaxy is thought to contain more than 200 billion different.
Within it there are at least 100 billion stars and on average each star has at least one planet orbiting it.
Many people are not clear about the difference between our solar system our milky way galaxy and the universe.
The artist s concept also includes a new spiral arm called the far 3 kiloparsec arm discovered via a radio telescope survey of gas in the milky way.
Our galaxy the milky way also has a supermassive black hole in the middle.
Earth is well equipped as a planet and ideally placed in our solar system and galaxy to support life as we know it.
This means there are potentially thousands of planetary systems like our solar system within the galaxy.
In galaxies the solar systems are separated by vast sections of mostly empty space.
The galaxy that contains the earth and its solar system is called the milky way.