Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way Galaxy is a large barred spiral galaxy that is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, and contains over 400 billion stars. The galaxy is composed of three major parts: the core, the disc, which is the ring of stars and interstellar dust that gives the galaxy its spiral shape, and the halo, which includes many older stars orbiting the core, but outside the disc, of which most are concentrated in massive globular clusters.

The Milky Way's disc is surrounded by a massive energy field of negative energy called the Galactic barrier, which makes travel into and out of the galaxy difficult.

In the science of stellar cartography, the Milky Way is divided into four major areas called quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, each of which compose one-quarter of the galaxy.