by hoohaw » Fri Aug 14, 2015 9:46 am
It is marvelous to look at the rift in the Milky Way and think how short a time ago it was, that we did not know what the Milky Way, much less the rift, actually was. A pearly band across the sky, and from the southern hemisphere two bits of it got loose somehow. What WAS this band? Astronomers finally discovered that the rift was not an absence of light, it was actual absorption of light by intervening material - interstellar dust.
We've come a long way, baby!
It is marvelous to look at the rift in the Milky Way and think how short a time ago it was, that we did not know what the Milky Way, much less the rift, actually was. A pearly band across the sky, and from the southern hemisphere two bits of it got loose somehow. What WAS this band? Astronomers finally discovered that the rift was not an absence of light, it was actual absorption of light by intervening material - interstellar dust.
We've come a long way, baby!