🌌 Milky Way
The galaxy is named after the Greek myth of Hera's spilled milk.
The Milky Way is our galaxy, a huge group of stars that includes the Sun. On a dark night you can see it as a pale, blurry band across the whole sky. The band looks like spilled milk. That is where the name comes from.
The name comes from the Latin “via lactea”, “the milky road”. That, in turn, was translated from the Greek “galaxias kyklos”, “the milky circle”. The word “galaxy” also comes from the Greek “gala” (milk). A Greek myth says that Zeus put the baby Heracles to the breast of the sleeping goddess Hera. Hera woke up and pushed the baby away, and her milk spilled across the sky.
Other peoples have their own names. In East Asia it is the “Silver River”, in Japan the “River of Heaven”. Turkic, Baltic and some other peoples call it the “Birds' Way”. The galaxy itself is a spiral with a bar in the middle. It holds 100 to 400 billion stars.
How it connects to milk
🌌 Milky Way → image → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Related to
- 🥛 Milk
Frequently asked questions
Why is it called the Milky Way?
In the sky it looks like a band of spilled milk. In Greek myth, it is the milk of the goddess Hera.
How are the words “galaxy” and “milk” related?
“Galaxy” comes from the Greek “gala”, meaning milk.
Similar
📜 «a land of milk and honey» · 🌽 Milk stage · 🦷 Milk teeth · 📜 «peaches and cream» · 📜 «once bitten, twice shy» · 📜 «wet behind the ears»