It
comprises by far the larger number of stars that the telescope has
shown to exist. Those we see with the naked eye are almost equally
scattered over the sky. But the number which the telescope shows
us become more and more condensed in the Milky Way as telescope
power is increased. The number of new stars brought out with our
greatest power is vastly greater in the Milky Way than in the rest
of the sky, so that the former contains a great majority of the
stars. What is yet more curious, spectroscopic research has shown
that a particular kind of stars, those formed of heated gas, are
yet more condensed in the central circle of this band; if they
were visible to the naked eye, we should see them encircling the
heavens as a narrow girdle forming perhaps the base of our whole
system of stars. This arrangement of the gaseous or vaporous stars
is one of the most singular facts that modern research has brought
to light. It seems to show that these particular stars form a
system of their own; but how such a thing can be we are still
unable to see.
The question of the form and extent of the Milky Way thus becomes
the central one of stellar astronomy. Sir William Herschel began
by trying to sound its depths; at one time he thought he had
succeeded; but before he died he saw that they were unfathomable
with his most powerful telescopes.
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