Abstract
On clear, moonless nights, a nebulous band of light can be seen stretching across the sky. This is the Milky Way (Fig. 18.1). The name is used both for the phenomenon in the sky and for the large stellar system causing it. The Milky Way system is also called the Galaxy — with a capital letter. The general term galaxy is used to refer to the countless stellar systems more or less like our Milky Way.
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Further Reading
Bok, B. & Bok, P. (1982): The Milky Way, 5th ed. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Mihalas, D., Binney, J. (1981): Galactic Astronomy (Freeman, San Francisco).
Scheffler, H., Elsässer, H. (1988): Physics of the Galaxy and the Interstellar Matter (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg).
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (1996). The Milky Way. In: Karttunen, H., Kröger, P., Oja, H., Poutanen, M., Donner, K.J. (eds) Fundamental Astronomy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03215-2_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03215-2_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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