How large is the Milky Way galaxy?

The Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter, though recent estimates suggest it may stretch up to 120,000 light-years across. It has a thickness of about 1,000 light-years in the disk region, with a central bulge roughly 10,000 light-years thick. The galaxy contains an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars and has a total mass of around 1.5 trillion solar masses when including dark matter. Our solar system is located about 26,000 light-years from the galactic center, roughly halfway out in one of the spiral arms known as the Orion Arm.