<Tr> <Th> Dark matter density at Sun's position </Th> <Td> 0.0088 + 0.0024 − 0.0018 M pc or 0.35 + 0.08 − 0.07 GeV cm </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies </Td> </Tr> <P> The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System . The descriptive "milky" is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy--a band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye . The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (galaxías kýklos, "milky circle"). From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk - shaped structure is viewed from within . Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610 . Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe . Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies . </P> <P> The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 100,000 and 180,000 light - years . The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100--400 billion stars . There are probably at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way . The Solar System is located within the disk, about 26,000 light - years from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, one of the spiral - shaped concentrations of gas and dust . The stars in the inner ≈ 10,000 light - years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge . The very center is marked by an intense radio source, named Sagittarius A *, which is likely to be a supermassive black hole . </P>

Who is credited with the discovery of the milky way