"The most distant galaxy is about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away from Earth. That means light from that galaxy has to travel through space 13 billion years to get here." http://www.figtreenotes.com/figs/?p=294
Where is Earth in the Milky Way?
The Earth and the Solar System are located within the Milky Way, so it’s kind of difficult to figure out where is Earth in the Milky Way. In fact, astronomers have only realized that the Milky Way is actually the disk of our galaxy, and not a vast nebula or collection of stars. Astronomers have only really know that there are other galaxies for less than a century.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy that measures about 100,000 light-years across, and is thought to contain between 100 and 400 billion stars. The Solar System (and Earth) is located about 25,000 light-years to the galactic center and 25,000 light-years away from the rim. So, imagine a dinner plate as the Milky Way, and draw an imaginary line from the center of the plate to the outside. We’re located about halfway along that line.
