Posted on 10/17/2005 7:06:43 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Milky Way is just the translation of Galaxias, which is what the Greeks called it. If Andromeda were similarly translated, then it'd be the Ruler of Men (which is still much cooler..)
I like the Chinese or Japanese myself: Silver River (yín hé) or Heavenly River (Amanogawa).
Galaxias kuklos = Milky circle, used of course just as we use Milky Way, as a reference to the appearance in the sky. Aristotle discusses its nature and concludes it is a sort of cosmic dust accumulated in one spot by the gyrations of the heavens.
Even as late as 1900 "the Galaxy" was a synonym for "the Milky Way" although it did seem to refer to the object itself rather than the appearance. At that time, there was speculation that some nebulae might be "external galaxies" or "external universes", although conservative opinion was against it.
So "the Milky way galaxy" is formally redundant. It's a similar situation to calling "our sun" "Sol", which of course just means sun.
LOL!
Let us see a Gravity Kick :-D
Sorry, not PC enough......
The Vertically Challenged Galaxy M32.
This is silly, naming a galaxy "The Milky Way." I think Baby Ruth, Payday, Abba Zabba, or Almond Joy is much better.
That is so true.
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