Figure 13-1 RIVUXG Schematic Diagrams of the Milky Way (a) From our vantage point on Earth sitting inside the Milky Way but not at the center, we see the Milky Way as a thin glowing band stretching across the sky all around us. (b) If we could see it from outside the Galaxy, we could see this edge-on view showing the Milky Way’s disk, containing most of its stars, gas, and dust, and its halo, containing many old stars. Individual stars in the halo are too dim to be visible on this scale, so the bright regions in the halo represent clusters of stars. (c) Our Galaxy has two major arms and several shorter segments, all spiraling out from the ends of a bar of stars and gas that passes through the Galaxy’s center.