Astromomy Cast: The Milky Way

Milky Way is actually derived from a Latin term. It basically comes from the fact that there is this band of light that to the naked eye is perceived as this light patch, this illuminated patch that spreads in an arc across the sky. The Milky Way is that unusual band that crops up in the sky in dark locations. It literally looked like someone had spilled milk across the sky and that’s where the name came from. Galileo first paid attention to the milky way in 1610 when he observed the entire sky and all he could see was an infinite amount of stars.  It comes up higher in the north and lower in the south so there is this ring of light that essentially goes all the way around the Solar System.  William Herschel tried to map out the shape of the Milky Way. He counted stars in all the directions and drew a diagram and he thought that the Solar System was in the center of the Milky Way. There are bunches of stars that in groups that are called Globular Clusters. Instruments that help observe the Milky way are the Radio and infrared telescopes. They help pick out stars that are orbiting super-massive black holes. This is also why you can see more stars toward the center of the galaxy as opposed to the outskirts.