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How Big Is the Milky Way?

The Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across. That is about 553 quintillion (5.5 × 10²⁰) times as wide as the average man is tall. Our home galaxy.

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How big is the Milky Way compared to the average man?

The Milky Way is about 553 quintillion (5.5 × 10²⁰) times as wide as the average man is tall. The Milky Way is 553 quintillion× the size of the average man: about 553 quintillion (5.5 × 10²⁰) average men lined up would match it.

Milky Way size facts

The Milky Way's disk is about 100,000 light-years across.
It contains roughly 100 to 400 billion stars.

How does the Milky Way compare to other things?

The Milky Way next to 23 things of similar size, plus some everyday references:

Thing	Size	Compared to Milky Way
Observable universe	93 billion light-years across	930,000× bigger
Andromeda Galaxy	152,000 light-years across	52,200 light-years bigger
TON 618 (black hole)	1,600 AU across	3.94 million× smaller
Solar System	60.2 AU across	105 million× smaller
VY Canis Majoris	13.2 AU across	478 million× smaller
Betelgeuse	7.09 AU across	892 million× smaller
Rigel	0.735 AU across	8.6 billion× smaller
Sagittarius A* (black hole)	15,800,000 miles (25,400,000 km) across	37.2 billion× smaller
Sirius A	1,480,000 miles (2,380,000 km) across	397 billion× smaller
Sun	865,000 miles (1,393,000 km) across	679 billion× smaller
Proxima Centauri	134,000 miles (215,000 km) across	4.4 trillion× smaller
Jupiter	86,900 miles (139,800 km) across	6.77 trillion× smaller
Saturn	72,400 miles (116,500 km)	8.12 trillion× smaller
Uranus	31,500 miles (50,720 km) across	18.6 trillion× smaller
Neptune	30,600 miles (49,240 km) across	19.2 trillion× smaller
Earth	7,920 miles (12,740 km) across	74.2 trillion× smaller
Venus	7,520 miles (12,100 km) across	78.2 trillion× smaller
Mars	4,210 miles (6,779 km) across	140 trillion× smaller
Mount Everest	5.5 miles (8.849 km)	107 quadrillion× smaller
Eiffel Tower	1,083 ft (330 m)	2.87 quintillion× smaller
School bus	40 ft (12.2 m) long	77.5 quintillion× smaller
Average man (world)	5 ft 7 in (171 cm)	553 quintillion× smaller
Average woman (world)	5 ft 3 in (159 cm)	595 quintillion× smaller

Where do these numbers come from?

Sizes are typical adult or reported values, rounded for readability. Read how we measure and compare sizes.