Milky Way
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The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy approximately 250-300 thousand light-years in diameter and containing 200-400 billion stars. The Sol system, containing the planet Earth, is located in one of the Milky Way's spiral arms.
Debate Use
The Milky Way is often used as a model when estimating interstellar travel distances. For instance, if a trip is described as going from the "core" of a galaxy to the "rim" of the galaxy, the distance can be estimated to be a significant fraction of the 125,000 light-year radius of the Milky Way.
The Milky Way is the actual setting for Star Trek, making its features even more relevant to the debates involving Star Trek.