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Credit: John P. Gleason, Celestial Images
Explanation:
Most bright stars in our
Milky Way Galaxy reside in a disk.
Since our Sun also resides in this disk, these stars
appear to us as a
diffuse band that circles the sky.
The above panorama of a
northern band of the
Milky Way's disk covers 90 degrees and is a
digitally created mosaic of several independent exposures.
Scrolling right will display the rest of this spectacular picture.
Visible are many
bright stars,
dark dust lanes,
red emission nebulae,
blue reflection nebulae, and
clusters of stars.
In addition to all this matter that we can see,
astronomers suspect there exists even more
dark matter that we cannot see.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Milky Way
Publications with words: Milky Way
See also: