Beyond Earth
The Milky Way
Look beyond the Solar System to our galaxy, the Milky Way.
On a moonless night, from a dark place far from city lights (like Yangdol and Dorjay's Ladakh), you can see a long, faint band of light across the sky. This is our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. In India it is also called Akasha Ganga.
A galaxy has millions to billions of stars. Our Sun is one of the stars of the Milky Way, so our whole Solar System is part of the Milky Way Galaxy. Think of it as an address: the Universe → the Milky Way → the Solar System → the Earth.
The Milky Way is not the only galaxy. There are many galaxies beyond it, and scientists study them to understand stars, galaxies and the Universe.
Is there life anywhere else? We do not know yet. Scientists search mostly on exoplanets, which are planets going around other stars in our galaxy. So far they have found no evidence of life, but the search goes on.
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