Milky Way

n. galaxy in which we are located; streak of light in the night sky, river of fire in the night sky

The Milky Way (a translation of the Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Γαλαξίας (Galaxias) sometimes referred to simply as "the Galaxy"), is a barred spiral galaxy that lies with the Local Group of galaxies neighbourhood of the Universe, visible from Earth as a band of light in the night sky. Although the Milky Way is one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe, the Galaxy has special significance to humanity as it is the home galaxy of the planet Earth.
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Noun
1. the galaxy containing the solar system; consists of millions of stars that can be seen as a diffuse band of light stretching across the night sky
(synonym) Milky Way Galaxy, Milky Way System
(hypernym) galaxy, extragalactic nebula
(member-meronym) Southern Cross, Crux, Crux Australis
(part-meronym) heliosphere

Via Straminis (Latin) The way of straw, the wispy way; the Milky Way, the name evidently referring to the wisps of light with which the Milky Way is strewn, as straw was often used to strew the roads in ancient times. The ancient Syrians in their system of describing the stages of nature, called the spiritual regents within and behind the Milky Way their First Principle. Theosophy regards the Milky Way as not only the origin of all manifested solar systems but likewise as the repository of these solar systems when they finish their evolutionary course and return to the invisible background of the galaxy for their long pralayic rest. Yet this is but a minor part that the Milky Way plays in the cosmic economy, for that pathway of the gods, as many ancient mystics called it, contains some of the deepest mysteries that the human mind in its endless research for truth and knowledge has unfolded. The Romans used two other expressions to denote the Milky Way: the circulus lacteus (milky circle) and via lactis (milky way). Milky Way. See GALAXY; VIA STRAMINIS

The name of our own galaxy, which contains about one hundred million stars. At present, the Sun exists in the trailing edge of the Orion spiral arm about two thirds of the way towards the edge of the Milky Way. All the stars, visible in the night sky are in our own galaxy. The misty band of light, which stretches across the night sky and is traditionally called the Milky Way, is our view of the galactic disc . The Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years and may be a < A HREF="aB_ub.html#Barred">barred spiral galaxy. It possesses a galactic halo of globular clusters . It is held by gravity to a few dozen other galaxies, known as the Local Group .