Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author (1934 – 1996), as well as an expert in astrophysics and other natural sciences. Carl Sagan was also a consultant/adviser to NASA since the 1950's and briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon.
This is what Carl Sagan, wrote in his book the Pale Blue Dot:
"How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, 'This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant'? Instead they say, 'No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.' A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths."
It is evident from all astronomers and science viewpoint, that Earth is a part of the vast Milky Way Galaxy.
What is the actual size and content of our Milky Way:
The most in depth claim on the cosmos is found in the Urantia Papers—claimed to be authored not by any human, but our celestial overseers ‘in our universe’ assigned to en-lighten us. There are hundreds of pages attributed to the vastness and cosmology of space found in the Urantia Papers. The timing of their transmitting was between 1905 - 1935, but not printed until 1955.
Compared to the History Channel’s conclusions that our Milky Way is 26,000 light years from Earth to it’s center; and NASA’s findings (100,000 years from one end of Milky Way to the other—or 50,000 light years from Earth to the ‘center’), the Urantia Book says it (the Milky Way) is "a trifle less than 250,000 light-years" from the outermost inhabited planet to the 'center' ... and we (Earth/Urantia) are quite toward the outer edge.
Further ... the Urantia book says that "Uversa" which is at the 'center' and headquarters sphere of Orvonton -- our Superuniverse (the Milky Way), is about 200,000 light years from Jerusem (not Jerusalem, but Jerusem), our headquarters world of our Local System of Satania, of which our 'solar system' is a part (one of our former System administrators, Satan, who turned to the dark side, was named after our neck of the woods--Satania). Our 'solar system' is called Monmatia -- according to the Urantia Book, and is likely to have more than one inhabited planet within its domains.
[[ It should be noted here, the Urantia Book makes mention that much of what our astronomers view as the myriads of nebula and galaxies with their billions of stars, dark matter, etc., are in effect our peering into the 'outer' outside, unknown, and unihabited zones of the known time/space regions of the 7 super-universes. This, since Earth; our local system, Satania; and our local universe, Nebadon; are currently positioned on that outer edges of the 'inhabited time/space zones. ]]
[Urantia Book 15:3.1] Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. The vast milky way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited evolutionary universes.
Therefore, if it is 250,000 light-years from the "outermost edge” of Milky Way to center of Milky Way; and 200,000 light-years from center to our local system headquarters world “Jerusem,” this leaves 50,000 light-years difference. And since HC and NASA say 26,000 light-years from Earth to center -- the question is ‘center of what?’
With this information from the Urantia Papers one could postulate that what our present-day scientists are calling the Milky Way may only be our system of Satania (which has presently 619 inhabited worlds and near-countless other planets and stars).
Another likelihood, what History Channel and NASA’s experts are describing as 26,000 light years maybe very well be the whole “Local Universe—Nebadon” (Jesus’ per-sonal creation) of which Satania is a small part. Nebadon is made up of "100 local Systems".
The Urantia Papers describe Nabadon as having a present registry of 3,840,101 inhab-ited worlds (still very young in evolutionary time-line… maximum will be 10,000,000 worlds). Hence, many Urantia Book students conjecture that what our scientists are calling Milky Way is most likely Nebadon. This would make more sense given the approximate 50,000 light-years difference mentioned above.
[Urantia Book 32.2.11] The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed from Uversa and that great sun cluster which functions as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is over two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on the periphery of the local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred and fifty thousand light-years.”
One could calculate then, the ‘superuniverse’ of Orvonton, what the Urantia Papers call our “Milky Way”, is approx. 500,000 light years diameter. That is 10 times more light-years than our present astronomers thinking.
In essence then, the Milky Way is one of 7 such ‘super-galaxies’ that revolve around the central perfect universe of Havona—the center of which is the Isle of Paradise.
[UB15:2.9 7] The Grand Universe. Seven superuniverses make up the present organized grand universe, consisting of approximately seven trillion inhabitable worlds plus the architectural spheres and the one billion inhabited spheres of Havona. The superuniverses are ruled and administered indirectly and reflectively from Para-dise by the Seven Master Spirits. The billion worlds of Havona are directly ad-ministered by the Eternals of Days, one such Supreme Trinity Personality presiding over each of these perfect spheres.
UB 15:2.10 Excluding the (one billion) Paradise-Havona spheres, the plan of universe organization provides for the following units:
Major sectors 70
Minor sectors 7,000
Local universes 700,000
Local systems 7,000,000,000
Inhabitable planets 7,000.000,000,000
UB 15:2.11Each of the seven superuniverses is constituted, approximately, as follows:
One system embraces, approximately 1,000 worlds
One constellation (100 systems) 100,000 worlds
One universe (100 constellations) 10,000,000 worlds
One minor sector (100 universes) 1,000,000,000 worlds
One major sector (100 minor sectors) 100,000,000,000 worlds
One superuniverse (10 major sectors) 1,000,000,000,000 worlds
UB 15:2.12 All such estimates are approximations at best, for new systems are constantly evolving while other organizations are temporarily passing out of material existence.