American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo shows off her excitement ahead of her San Diego show in the second decade of May 2022. (Photo by oliviarodrigo/Instagram)
The Milky Way is the galaxy in which Earth is contained. This name derives from its appearance as a dim “milky” glowing band arching across the night sky, in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The term “Milky Way” is a translation of the Classical Latin via lactea, from the Hellenistic Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (pr. galaxías kýklos, “milky circle”). The Milky Way appears like a band because it is a disk-shaped structure being viewed from inside. The fact that this faint band of light is made up of stars was proven in 1610 when Galileo Galilei used his telescope to resolve it into individual stars. In the 1920s, observations by astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
Hailee Steinfeld performs at the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, November 19, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP Photo)
Women's Freestyle 50kg wrestling gold medalist Sarah Hildebrandt of Team United States carries Men's Greco-Roman 77kg wrestling gold medalist Nao Kusaka of Team Japan on stage on day thirteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Champions Park on August 08, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
A pair of young visitors rushes through a tunnel of colored lights at the annual Garden of Lights display at Brookside Gardens on December, 06, 2015 in Silver Spring, MD. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Summit, an Australian shepherd, makes a leaping catch of a frisbee at the pet trade fair (Heimtiermesse) at Velodrom on November 2, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. Exhibitors are showing the latest trends in collars, snacks and other accessories for cats, dogs and other household pets. (Photo by Sean Gallup)
Kristina Elekes, 23, races on her ski during the Bikini Race contest held at Arena Platos Paltinis winter resort, near Sibiu city, 275 Km north from Bucharest, Romania, 06 March 2016. Bikini Race is a timed show on the slopes, at the fourth edition, for women dressed only in swimmsuits and some winter accessories. (Photo by Mihaela Bobar/EPA)
Some of the best entries so far in the 2016 Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. There are two weeks left to enter, and the winners will be announced in September. Here: Aurora over Laksvatn Fjord, Laksvatn, Norway. The aurora borealis dances in the skies over the town of Laksvatn, with the Milky Way to the left. The image is a single shot with no compositing, only post-processing to bring out the aurora, and some colour corrections. The photographer Matt Walford said: “I love the way the northern lights look like they are just wistfully dancing over the fjord, framed by the mountains on either side”. (Photo by Matt Walford/National Maritime Museum)