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Explorations an Introduction to Astronomy Thomas T. Arny | ||||||||
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Chapter
Images
Chapter 15, Figure 4
Figure
15.4
A copy of
Herschel's sketch of the Milky ay made by him in 1784. He based this cross
sectional view on the number of stars he could see in different directions.
From this picture he correctly deduced that the Milky ay was wider than it was thick. However, Herschel inco ectly concluded that the Sun (the yellow
dot) is near the Milky ay's center.
He was led astray by his lack of knowledge that dust clouds blot out distant
stars and prevent us from seeing our galaxy's true extent.
