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The Milky Way
The word galaxy comes from a Greek word meaning "milky circle" or, more familiarly, "milky way." The white band of light across the night sky that we call the Milky Way was observed and described poetically long before Galileo examined it with a small telescope. What he discovered was a multitude of individual stars, "so numerous as almost to surpass belief."
Credit & Copyright: Barney Magrath
The Milky Way's cosmic clouds of stars and dust stretch across this picture taken May 2001 from Hawaii. In the foreground is an "ahu hoku" - a star marker or star altar - built up of rocks topped with a white piece of coral glowing in the moonlight.
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