Page 7 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

 We see our galaxy, the Milky Way, from the side because we are inside it. In this picture the central bulge shows white, and the spiral arms glow less intensely. The white smudges to the lower right are the Magellanic Cloud neighboring galaxies.
For more on galaxies and the Magellanic Clouds see Volume 1: How the universe works.
 Our nearest neighbors, also known as the LocaL Group, account for most of the stars you can see on a clear night with the naked eye. This picture shows a few of them.
200,000,000,000,000 km
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Eta Cass
Tau Ceti
Epsilon Eridani
Procyon
Sun
Wolf 359 Sirius
Altair
Barnard's Star
Alpha Centauri
Ross 128
200,000,000,000,000 km