The Milky Way is our home galaxy. It contains over 200 billion stars, including our Sun. The Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years, and is a barred spiral galaxy. The discovery of the Milky Way goes back to the Ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. The Milky Way has three main parts: a disk, in which the Solar System resides, a bulge at the core, and an all encompassing halo. This galaxy belongs to the Local Group of three large galaxies and over 50 smaller galaxies. The Milky Way is one of the largest galaxies in the group, second to the Andromeda Galaxy. Milky Way's closest neighbour is Canis Major Dwarf, which is about 25,000 light years away from the Earth. The Andromeda Galaxy moves towards the Milky Way Galaxy, and will meet it in about 3.75 billion years. Andromeda Galaxy moves with a speed of about 1,800 kilometres per minute.

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