Next time someone asks you how wide the Milky Way is , you might want to rethink your answer of '100,000 light-years ' . Astronomers have discovered that a strange ring of distant stars may actually be part of our galaxy , making it 50 per cent bigger at 150,000 light-years wide . This is based on re-analysis of a distant ring that surrounds our galaxy , which the astronomers think is now actually part of the Milky Way . Astronomers in New York have revised the size estimate for our galaxy ( shown ) . They now say it is 50 per cent bigger in size at 150,000 light-years wide , not 100,000 light-years . This is based on re-examining a ring of stars in the so-called Monoceros Ring . The team of scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York studied the Monoceros Ring , which is a long ring-like filament of stars that ‘ wraps ’ around our galaxy three times . It is located 65,000 light-years from our galaxy ’ s centre , and in total is 200,000 light-years in length . Previously it was thought to be a stream of stars torn from the nearby Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy due to interactions with the Milky Way . The Milky Way is thought contain more than 200 billion stars . This makes it a ‘ middleweight ’ galaxy with the largest galaxy known , IC 1101 , containing more than 100 trillion stars . On a clear night , when you look up into the night sky the most you can see from any one point on the Earth is about 2,500 stars . Like more than two-thirds of the known galaxies , the Milky Way has a spiral shape . At the centre of the spiral , a lot of energy and , occasionally , vivid flares are created . Astronomers believe the Milky Way wasn ’ t always a stunning barred spiral . It formed into its current size by ‘ eating ’ other galaxies . Now , however , it seems that the ring may actually be part of our own galaxy , and could have been disturbed by other dwarf galaxies . ‘ It looks to me like maybe these patterns are following the spiral structure of the Milky Way , so they may be related , ’ Dr Heidi Newberg , from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York , told Discovery News . ‘ It now looks to me like it ’ s part of the disk , ’ she added . The latest discovery was made using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey , a projecting to map parts of the universe in three dimensions . The results will be published in the Astrophysical Journal . Another ring , known as the TriAnd Ring , may also be part of the Milky Way , further increasing its size . To verify their theory , astronomers will use data from Europe ’ s Gaia telescope , which is also mapping stars in the Milky Way . Previously the Monoceros Ring was thought to be a stream of stars torn from the nearby Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy due to interactions with the Milky Way ( illustration shown ) . Now , however , it seems that the ring may actually be part of our own galaxy , and could have been disturbed by other dwarf galaxies .
Astronomers in New York have revised the size estimate for our galaxy . They now say it is 150,000 light - years wide , not 100,000 light - years . This is based on photo - imagining a ring of galaxies called the Monoceros Ring . Previously this was thought to belong to a nearby dwarf galaxy . Now astronomers are fairly certain it is part of the Milky Way .