497-solar-system-neighborhood-dixon – The Sun's Neighbors -geography of the Milky Way Galaxy. Our sun orbits about 30,000 light years from the center of the galaxy, which contains approximately 400 billion stars. Astronomers currently know of only about a dozen stars within 10 light years of the Sun (inset cube). The large rectangle encompasses a region of about 10,000 light years. Digital, for Scientific American, 2009. copyright Don Dixon
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