Changes

The [[English]] term for Milky Way (and Galaxy in general) has its origin in the [[Greek]] Γαλαξίας, or ''Galaxias'', which is from the word for milk, γάλα or ''gala''.  According to [[Greek mythology]], the Milky Way is milk that was spilled when [[Hera]] was suckling [[Heracles]].

The [[English]] term for Milky Way (and Galaxy in general) has its origin in the [[Greek]] Γαλαξίας, or ''Galaxias'', which is from the word for milk, γάλα or ''gala''.  According to [[Greek mythology]], the Milky Way is milk that was spilled when [[Hera]] was suckling [[Heracles]].

===History of Discovery===

==History of Observation==

The first person to contend that the Milky Way, as seen in the night sky on [[Earth]], may consist of stars was the Greek philosopher, '''Democritius'''  (450-370 B.C.).<ref>http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/now/stories/2007/07/stars.html</ref>  However [[Aristotle]] believed the Milky Way was caused by "''the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together''", that occurred in the upper [[atmosphere]].<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-bajja/</ref>  Aristotle's ideas about the Milky Way were disproved when the [[Arabia|Arabian]] [[astronomer]], [[Alhazen]] (965-1037 A.D.) made the first attempt to measure the Milky Way's [[parallax]], determining it to be so remote from the Earth due to having negligible parallax, it was established as ''celestial'' in nature and not part of the atmosphere.  Many of the other famed astronomers of the [[medieval]] [[Islam#Historical_Background|Islamic world]] such as '''Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī''', '''Ibn Bajjah''', and '''Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya''' came to the conclusion that the Milky Way was made up of many distant stars that were situated very close together.

The first person to contend that the Milky Way, as seen in the night sky on [[Earth]], may consist of stars was the Greek philosopher, '''Democritius'''  (450-370 B.C.).<ref>http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/now/stories/2007/07/stars.html</ref>  However [[Aristotle]] believed the Milky Way was caused by "''the ignition of the fiery exhalation of some stars which were large, numerous and close together''", that occurred in the upper [[atmosphere]].<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-bajja/</ref>  Aristotle's ideas about the Milky Way were disproved when the [[Arabia|Arabian]] [[astronomer]], [[Alhazen]] (965-1037 A.D.) made the first attempt to measure the Milky Way's [[parallax]], determining it to be so remote from the Earth due to having negligible parallax, it was established as ''celestial'' in nature and not part of the atmosphere.  Many of the other famed astronomers of the [[medieval]] [[Islam#Historical_Background|Islamic world]] such as '''Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī''', '''Ibn Bajjah''', and '''Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya''' came to the conclusion that the Milky Way was made up of many distant stars that were situated very close together.