Milky Way Bar

A new study produced this diagram of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It consists of a long bar of mainly old stars in the center, with several spiral arms wrapping off the ends of the bar. Earth is about 27,000 light-years from the center. The bar funnels gas toward the center of the galaxy, where it piles up and gives birth to new stars. The ends of the bar appear to lie in the constellation Sagittarius, which looks like a teapot. [Xing-Wu Zheng & Mark Reid/BeSSeL/NJU/CfA]