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17 August 2012

The Milky Way our Mother Galaxy


The Milky Way our Mother Galaxy
The Milky Way, Kustavi, Finland.

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth. This name derives from its appearance as a dim "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky, in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars.
The term "Milky Way" is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (pr. galaxías kýklos, "milky circle"). The Milky Way appears like a band because it is a disk-shaped structure being viewed from inside. The fact that this faint band of light is made up of stars was proven in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to resolve it into individual stars. In the 1920s, observations by astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.

READ more on WIkipedia HERE
Watch Milky Way astrophotos HERE
Picture: The Milky Way credit: KTY Toutatis

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