geography

For thousands of years, astronomers have worked to unlock the mysteries of the heavens. As they observed the stars and planets that parade majestically across the sky, one great source of wonder was a huge faint trail of light that was called the Milky Way Galaxy because it looked like milk, spilled across the darkness of night. When scientists started using telescopes in the 1600s, they began to understand more about the Milky Way. But it wasn’t until the 20th century that new technology allowed scientists to take the full measure of this galaxy and others scattered across the universe. What they have uncovered is richly detailed in the pages of this book.