Island universe

Many stories have been invented to account for this milky band of light, but today we know that it is the light of millions and millions of stars making up our “Island Universe” the Milky-Way Galaxy.

You will notice that the wide band of sky which follows the Milky-Way from the northeastern horizon to straight overhead (through the summer triangle mentioned in the Aug. 14 Nugget) and on to the southern horizon is far richer in stars than the rest of the sky. This is because the Milky-Way Galaxy, our local “island universe,” is a disk-shaped object and quite thin in comparison with its diameter.