**MILKY WAY GALAXY – OUR <br /> CELESTIAL HOME <br /> <br />On a clear dark and moonless night, <br />Spread across from the North-eastern to the <br />South-eastern horizon of the sky, - <br />Extending through the Constellations of Peresus, <br />Cassiopeia and Cepheus, one can see, - <br />The sprawling Milky Way galaxy! <br />Ovid described it as the highway of the Gods! <br />In Greek mythology we read, how goddess Hera <br />was tricked, - <br />Into suckling the baby Hercales, son of her <br />husband Zeus by the beautiful mortal Alcamene! <br />Learning about this trickery, Hera tore her breast <br />from the baby’s mouth, - <br />With her milk spurting across the sky all the way, - <br />Creating the smear of our Milky Way! <br /> <br />The Milky Way with its long spiral-like arms, <br />Around its central bulge 10,000 light years thick; <br />Giving its spiral shape, rotates clockwise in space! <br />Its arms are named from the constellations which in <br />in those directions we discern, - <br />The Perseus, Sagittarius, Centaurus and the Cygnus <br />Arms! <br />Our solar system is located in the Orion Spur; - <br />Lying in the outer arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, - <br />Studded with some 200 million stars, both young <br />and old, - <br />Most of which we cannot see! <br />In between those spiraling arms lie areas of dark <br />unknown exotic matters! <br />And as our solar system gradually orbit towards <br />those dark areas in space, - <br />Climatic changes will take place, ushering in perhaps <br />another Ice Age*, - <br />Which the Astronomers now speculate! <br /> -Raj Nandy <br /> 07 Mar 09 <br />(* This would take some millions of years! Being <br /> interested in Astronomy, I have composed this, - <br /> based on all factual data!)<br /><br />RAJ NANDY<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/milky-way-galaxy-our-celestial-home/
