spiral
The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral galaxy that contains about 400 billion stars. Like other spiral galaxies, it has a disk, a central bulge, and spiral arms. The disk is about 100,000 light-years across. It is about 3,000 light years thick. Most of the galaxys gas, dust, young stars, and open clusters are in the disk. Some astronomers think that there is a gigantic black hole at the center of the galaxy. Figure below shows what the Milky Way probably looks like from the outside.