Milky Way Galaxy

From TFC Galactopedia

A Cartography Overview Map of the Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way Galaxy is a large barred spiral galaxy containing between 200 and 400 billion stars, approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter. The galaxy is comprised of three major parts: the core, which contains a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A, the disc, which is the ring of stars and interstellar dust that gives the galaxy its spiral shape, and the halo, which includes many older stars orbiting the core, but outside the disc, of which most are concentrated in massive globular clusters.

The Milky Way's disc is surrounded by a massive barrier of unknown origin, which prevents most travel into and out of the galaxy.

The core is also surrounded by a similar force field called the Great Barrier, which is very difficult to penetrate.

The Milky Way is divided into four major areas called quadrants: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, each of which comprise one-quarter of the galaxy.

By 2365, the Federation had charted only nineteen percent of the galaxy.