In Internet I came across a panoramic view of Milky Way,
The pic is so impressive - just see the link attached!
The galaxy of which our sun and solar system are a part
Is a broad band of silver light that arcs across night sky.
The Milky Way contains as much as 200-400 billion stars.
Among the constellations that it passes through are
Carina, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Auriga, Sagittarius, plus
Gemini, Scorpio, Aquila, Cygnus, Crux.
A band of dark divides it into half,
And yet another region dark called Coal Sack of the Crux
Is just the clouds of matter dark that blot out light from sight.
It is arrayed in form of disk with central elliptical bulge
Of stars packed closely towards the Archer constellation bright,
Surrounded by discus marked by six (not sixty!) spiral arms,
Which wind out from the nucleus in giant pinwheel style.
Because of arms the Milky Way was called a spiral galaxy by us.
Our sun is in the one of smaller - Local or Orion - arms.
It lies about two thirds of the way from disco’s central place -
Some 28,000 light-years far and in galactic plane.
The stars, gas, dust that make up Milky Way
Are grouped in two broad populations that suggest
How Galaxy evolved.
Like other galaxies it grows, absorbing smaller ones.
With Magellanic Clouds it's now merging - Small and Large,
Which process will be over in about 100 million years.
(We'll live and see whether it's true or just a fancy write!)
Dwarf galaxy of Canis Major is to collide with Milky Way,
Deprived of stars pulled by the Way it's losing former shape.
This dwarf is from the solar system 25,000 light years away
And 42,000 light years far from center of the Milky Way.
It’s closer than the Archer galaxy that runs in Milky Way,
Some other galaxies are on collision course as well.
The most spectacular collision will take place
With Galaxy of Andromeda then,
Whereupon within about two billion years of time
The massive tidal gravity effects will tear arms apart
And break those pinwheels into shreds,
Resulting, mind, in an elliptical - not spiral Milky Way,
(Far from the best of options for our solar system as I guess.)