Within the observable Universe, the planet Earth is located in the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies a group of galaxies bound to each other by gravity. Within this supercluster is a smaller group of galaxies known as the Local Group consisting of some 50 galaxies. The planet Earth is in the second largest galaxy of the Local Group – known as the Milky Way, a large spiral galaxy - and Earth is located in one of the spiral arms of the galaxy known as the Orion Arm - which lies at a distance of 26,000 light years from the center of the galaxy roughly two-thirds of the way out from the center. Earth is part of the Solar System consisting of eight planets and their moons, as well as numerous asteroids, comets and other smaller celestial bodies, all of which are bound by gravity to the central star – the Sun, the most massive body in the system and all the other bodies orbit it. Earth is the third planet from the Sun in the Solar System. We use the word “solar” to describe everything related to the Sun, after the Latin word "solis" meaning the Sun.
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