Milky Way Galaxy Is of Particular Interest

Milky Way Galaxy is of particular interest to the planet Earth, and the people that reside there, because the planet is one of, possibly, billions contained within it. The term galaxy is used when a large group of stars, generally a billion or more, have clustered together due to a similar attraction to some gravitational attraction. The Milky Way Galaxy is actually a conglomeration of others such as the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy and the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy whose masses have been consumed by the Milky Way (Wethington, 2009). This collection of "solar masses" (Wethington, 2009) is joined by an even larger group of planets (much like the solar system in which the Earth is a resident), dust clouds, gas, comets/meteors and other debris.

The Galaxy got its name from the fact that people in more ancient history than ours could see the impression of a milky, or cloud-like line in the night sky. The people thought they were seeing something like a gas cloud or something that was only visible at night (Wethington, 2009). This impression was changed in the 1600's when Galileo aimed his fledgling telescope at the night sky and determined that the assumed gas cloud was actually a large number of stars (he thought they only numbered in the thousands) just beyond normal visual sight. It was later determine, of course, that this was actually the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

An astronomer that was especially instrumental in the world's understanding of the Milky Way Galaxy was William Hershel. Hershel became an astronomer by accident when he discovered the writing of an accomplished researcher in astronomy through his musical interest in harmonics. He was, first and foremost, a musician in his early life in Germany then in England, but he had such a desire to see the mysteries of the firmament that he started indulging his interest by star gazing (Soylent Communications, 2012). Hershel had to grind his own mirrors and spent his nights, with his sister and brother, gazing at the stars, making observations and relating them to anyone who would listen. He eventually devised a telescope large enough that he could see the previously unnoticed planet Uranus just beyond the rings of Saturn (or so it appeared to him) (Soylent Communications, 2012).