What's the size of our Galaxy

Stellar disk: 185 ± 15 kly (kilo Langley/year)

Dark matter halo: 1.9 ± 0.4 Mly (mega light year) (580 ± 120 kpc)

Explanation:

The Milky Way galaxy contains the sun and the planets orbiting around it. This galaxy also contains up to 400 billion stars. The stellar disk of this galaxy is between 170,000 to 200,000 light years which is equal to a diameter of 52 - 61 kiloparsec.

Its thickness is measured at 0.3kpc which is also equal to 1000 light years. Its mass is 890 billion to 1.54 trillion times the mass of the sun. Its size is second to that of the Andromeda galaxy.

scattering of light by tiny particles in air to produce the colors we see on sky, is dependent on the following factors:

(i) wavelength of light

(ii) size of the scattering particle  

(iii) distance traveled by light through the atmosphere.

according to rayleigh's law of scattering, the amount of scattering is inversely proportional to the fourth power of its wavelength. shorter the wavelength, greater is its scattering. hence violet/blue light is scattered more than red.

sun's light is a composite light ( visible light) with wavelengths in the range 400 nm (violet) to 700 nm (red). as sunlight passes through our atmosphere, the molecules of air scatter light according to their wavelengths. during sunrise and sunset, the sun's position is below the horizon. hence light from the sun travels a greater distance in the atmosphere when compared to its position a noon.

as sunlight enters the earth's atmosphere, blue light is scattered away and at the end of its journey in the sky, only red and orange wavelengths remain in the beam.

hence at sunrise and sunset, the sky appears reddish orange.