David Zuber, age 11, of Newport News, Virginia, for his question:

Where exactly is the Milky Way?

The main event is that a way, about 30,000 light years behind the summer constellation Sagittarius. This region is where the crowded center of the Milky Way is located. It's too bad that this central hub of the wheeling Galaxy is hidden by clouds of dark cosmic dust. However, we are able to'see the major portion of the stupendous star system, sprawling across the sky. This thin ghostly arch is the edgewise view of the Milky Way Galaxy.

It forms a pale, hazy arch across, reaching up two thirds of the distance between the horizon and the zenith, which is directly overhead. At different seasons it appears behind different constellations that circle the Pole Star. Actually, what we see is the blurry light of millions of remote stars. Our sun is far from the center of the Galaxy, along one of its spiralling arms    which means that the earth and other planets are inside the great Milky Way.