The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky, in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The term "Milky Way" is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (pr. galaxías kýklos, "milky circle"). The Milky Way appears like a band because it is a disk-shaped structure being viewed from inside. The fact that this faint band of light is made up of stars was proven in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to resolve it into individual stars. In the 1920s, observations by astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.To pinpoint our location in the galaxy for the first time, the £630-million Gaia Space Telescope will take three-dimensional pictures of more than a billion stars in the Milky Way in an attempt to help astronomers.Scientists claim the spacecraft, which is due to be launched in October, will allow them to study the stars around us in more detail than ever before, and will reveal just how far these distant suns are from our own solar system.The telescope will help astronomers determine the age, size and movement of the stars, while also providing details of what they are made of.They also hope to discover more than 5000 new planets outside our own solar system along with other objects that lie outside our galaxy."Gaia is an astronomer's dream," said Alvaro Gimenez, director of science at the European Space Agency, which has funded the mission."It is designed to answer many of the questions we have about the stars. We know little about exactly how far away they are, and how they move. Gaia will tell us this."RELATED VIDEO:
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