<br/><span class="bbc_u">The Milky Way</span><br/><br/>The Milky Way is a galaxy diametering 100000 ly and the Solar System, or Sol, is around 25000 ly far from its center. The spiral branch that contains Sol, we can round it up and take it to be  25000-30000 ly in length.<br/>The closest stars to the Sun are Proxima Centauri and Alfa and Beta Centauri, all these at around 4.5 ly.<br/><br/>Each spiral branch is called an arm too and here are the names.<br/><br/>Common Name                Alternative Name<br/>---------------------------------------------------<br/>Norma Arm                       3 kiloparsec Arm<br/>Scutum-Crux Arm            Centaurus Arm<br/>Sagittarius Arm               Sagittarius-Carina Arm<br/>Orion Arm                      Local Arm<br/>Perseus Arm                      -<br/>Cygnus Arm                    Outer Arm<br/>|<br/>(http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/milkyway.jpg)<br/><br/>For coordinate orientations around the Milky Way, see:<br/>http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/index.php?title=Image:Mwmap-gautem.jpg   (1M jpg image)<br/><br/>