“The Milky Way” refers both to our galaxy and to the astronomical phenomenon where a concentration of stars resembling a white band appears in the night sky (which is actually the galaxy viewed edge-on, which is why we named the galaxy after it once we learned what galaxies were.)
Mars is inside the milky way, though.
“The Milky Way” refers both to our galaxy and to the astronomical phenomenon where a concentration of stars resembling a white band appears in the night sky (which is actually the galaxy viewed edge-on, which is why we named the galaxy after it once we learned what galaxies were.)