On a typical night, looking into the sky, you can see somewhere between 500 and 6000 stars, depending on how dark your night sky is. If you live in a reasonably dark area, you may be lucky enough to see a faint, diffuse band stretching across the sky, from horizon to horizon. This band, known as the Milky Way, is the plane of our home galaxy.
It was Galileo who discovered that this band consisted of an almost uncountable number of stars, after he turned his telescope to the sky. Prior to this, it was believed that the Milky Way was a ‘cloud’ that spanned the entire sky.
360-degree photographic panorama of the Milky Way. (Digital Sky LLC)
