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The Milky Way, called by the Greeks 'Galaxy' and by the Latins 'Via Lactea' on account of its colour and appearance, is a soft zone of luminous misty light forming a broad but very irregular girdle around the heavens. It covers about one tenth of whole sky. This light is formed by myriads of tiny faint stars, mostly too small to be observed independently (even with powerful telescopes), with a scattering of larger, brighter stars shining here and there. Dark spaces in it are not due to absence of stars, but to dark nebulous matter veiling the stars beyond.
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