Earth is located in the Milky Way Galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy that contains billions of stars, including our Sun. The Milky Way is just one of the many galaxies in the universe and is thought to be about 100,000 light-years in diameter. It features several components, including the central bulge, spiral arms, and a halo of stars and globular clusters. Our solar system is situated in one of the outer spiral arms, known as the Orion Arm, which lies approximately 27,000 light-years from the galactic core. The Milky Way serves as the home for our entire solar system.