Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of
our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief
explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2011 July 10
Explanation: Most bright stars in our Milky Way Galaxy reside in
a disk. Since our Sun also resides in this disk, these stars
appear to us as a diffuse band that circles the sky. The above
panorama of a northern band of the Milky Way's disk covers 90
degrees and is a digitally created mosaic of several independent
exposures. Scrolling right will display the rest of this
spectacular picture. Visible are many bright stars, dark dust
lanes, red emission nebulae, blue reflection nebulae, and
clusters of stars. In addition to all this matter that we can
see, astronomers suspect there exists even more dark matter that
we cannot see. Authors & editors: Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA
Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply. A service of:
ASD at NASA / GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.